Feb. 26, 2012
Atlanta – The No. 17/19 Georgia Tech women’s basketball team (22-7, 12-4 ACC) defeated Clemson (6-21, 2-14) 62-50 in the Yellow Jackets’ Senior Day game Sunday afternoon at Forbes Arena on the Morehouse College campus in downtown Atlanta.
The win puts Tech’s ACC school wins record at 12 heading into next week’s ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, N.C. The win was the Jackets’ 22nd of the regular season, tying the program record for most regular season victories. The win also gives the 2012 senior class 91 career victories, which also ties the Tech record for most wins by one class during their four-year career. The class of five finished their careers with a program-best 37 conference wins during their four-years on the Flats.
“I think it was a very emotional game for our seniors,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “It was a really hard game to play because all week long we’ve had so many different emotions. When you get that many seniors, you have so many different things going on off the court and on the court. We started five different people, everyone was kind of out of sorts to begin the game. I really enjoyed this week and today celebrating this very special class. I told the team after the game on the floor it’s a compliment to them because there is no way we would’ve had a record breaking season playing virtually every game on the road without these five special seniors and their leadership.”
After falling behind 13-10 midway through the first half, the Yellow Jackets went on a 13-2 run sparked by one of Sydney Wallace’s four 3-pointers on the day to take a 23-15 lead. Tech took a 33-25 lead into the halftime intermission and Wallace had tossed in 12 points.
Georgia Tech grabbed its first double-digit lead of the day when Chelsea Regins got a layup on the assist from Metra Walthour to make the score 45-34 with 14:05 to go. The Lady Tigers kept within single digits until Dawnn Maye knocked down a pair of free throws and finished a nifty fastbreak layup to make the score 55-43 with just over seven minutes left.
The Tech defense held Clemson to only two field goals in the final seven minutes en route to a 12-point Yellow Jacket win.
Wallace finished with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting off the bench. Sasha Goodlett, Maye and Tyaunna Marshall each finished with nine points. In total, nine different Yellow Jackets scored.
“I was really pleased with Sydney Wallace,” Joseph said. “I thought she came in and gave us some separation early in the first half with her 3-point shooting. As we start to say good bye to our seniors, we start to look ahead, start thinking about the future and Sydney Wallace is one of those players we expect big things out of. It’s really important we’ve been able to get her some quality minutes coming down the stretch.”
The win was the Yellow Jackets fifth straight to cap the regular-season. Tech has won nine of its last 10 and 11 of its last 13.
Georgia Tech heads to the ACC Tournament as the No. 4 seed after Maryland defeated NC State Sunday. The Jackets will play at 11 a.m. Friday, March 2, against the winner of fifth-seed North Carolina and 12th-seed Clemson. The ACC regional sports network will carry the first two days of action from the Greensboro Coliseum.
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— RamblinWreck.com –
