Jan. 22, 2011
By Jon Cooper
Sting Daily
TECH LEADING SCORER: Tyaunna Marshall, 14.0 ppg
TECH LEADING SCORER, ACC: Tyaunna Marshall, 14.6 ppg
BOSTON COLLEGE LEADING SCORER: Carolyn Swords, 17.7 ppg
BOSTON COLLEGE LEADING SCORER, ACC: Carolyn Swords, 15.5 ppg
TECH LEADING REBOUNDER: Alex Montgomery, 8.2 rpg
TECH LEADING REBOUNDER, ACC: Alex Montgomery, 7.0 rpg
BOSTON COLLEGE LEADING REBOUNDER: Carolyn Swords, 9.0 rpg
BOSTON COLLEGE LEADING REBOUNDER, ACC: Carolyn Swords, 11.0 rpg
TECH SCORING: 65.1/ppg/57.8 (ACC)
OPPONENT: 52.6 ppg/57.2 (ACC)
BOSTON COLLEGE SCORING: 82.8 ppg/72.8 (ACC)
OPPONENT: 68.4 ppg/71.2 (ACC)
BOSTON COLLEGE PLAYER TO WATCH: Carolyn Swords/Stefanie Murphy – In 6-6 senior center Swords and 6-4 senior forward Murphy, the Eagles have the top two rebounders in the ACC, with Swords first at 9.0 rpg and Murphy right behind her at 8.9 (they are 2-3 in ACC play). Swords, as she did last year, is leading the nation in field goal percentage (72.7), while Murphy is fifth at 52.4, and her 10 double-doubles tie for 10th in the country. Last year, in B.C.’s 77-51 win over Tech, the duo combined to go 17-20 from the floor, as the Eagles shot an opponent-high 61.8 and made 34 field goals, both opponent highs, while holding Tech to a team-low nine rebounds.
MaChelle Joseph’s squad will have short rest and a tall order in front of them in trying to get back on the winning track as they host the Eagles of Boston College. Tipoff at Alexander Memorial Coliseum is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets saw their 13-game winning streak end in humiliating fashion on Friday night, losing 69-32 at third-ranked Duke. Sasha Goodlett, Ty Marshall and Frida Fogdemark each had six points to lead the Jackets, whose 32 points, 28.6 percent shooting and 12 field goals made were all season lows. Tech trailed 26-15 at the half, before a 15-2 run to start the second half put the game away.
The Eagles soared to their eighth win in 10 home games Thursday night, knocking off N.C. State, 77-67, at Conte Forum. Swords led the way with 15 points and 19 rebounds, and Murphy added 14 and 6 — on a combined 14-for-21 shooting. B.C., the ACC’s top field goal and free throw shooting team, led by nine at the half then used an 11-0 run to pull away. Boston College is solid on the road, as the Eagles are 5-2, (1-1 in ACC play), 7-2 if you include neutral-site games.
Georgia Tech will look to reverse recent fortunes against Boston College, as the Jackets who are 11-1 at AMC this season, have lost three straight games and four out of five in the MaChelle Joseph Era — Tech is 3-4 all-time in the series. They are 2-1 all-time at AMC, but lost the last home meeting, 65-64 in overtime.
Today’s game will be televised on RSN (Fox Sports South in Atlanta), with Rich Waltz doing the play-by-play and Christy Winters-Scott providing the color. As always, Tech fans can catch the game on WREK, 91.1 FM or online at www.WREK.org. Richard Musterer calls the action with Kyle Tait adding color analysis. Fans can get live stats by logging onto Ramblinwreck.com.
Now, the Starting Five for tonight’s game.
Bounce-Back Alex: It’s very rare that Alex Montgomery goes a full game without a field goal. In fact, prior to Friday’s Duke game, it had happened only three times in her career, twice during her freshman season (at Iowa and against Iowa State in the NCAAs), and in one of those games, she attempted only two shots. The last time she went without a field goal was last year, against Boston College, when she was 0-for-5, 0-for-3 from three and never got to the line. It was one of two times in her career she was shutout points-wise. It should also be noted that prior to her career-high 28 Dec. 1 against Northwestern, her best scoring night was 26 points, done twice, once against Boston College on Feb. 18, 2008.
Bounce-Back Alex, Part II: Montgomery hasn’t had back-to-back single-digit scoring games this season, and did so only once last year. She’s been held to single digits in back-to-back games only five times in her career, and three of those were in her freshman year. Over the last two seasons, following games where she’s been held below double-digits, she’s come back, shooting 43.1 percent in the next game. In ACC play, she’s only had back-to-back single-digit-scoring games once since her sophomore season and over her career is averaging 15.7 points per game in the ensuing game.
Chairman of the Boards: While on the subject of bouncing back, Sasha Goodlett had a bounce-back game against Duke off the glass, pulling down a team-high 8 rebounds — two off the game-high. Goodlett had managed only two retrievals in the previous game against Wake Forest. Since the start of ACC play, she’s grabbed 34 rebounds, 6.8 a game, good for 10th in the conference and just a shade below Montgomery, who has one more rebound. Goodlett’s tied for seventh on the offensive glass with North Carolina’s Chay Shegog (3.0 ORPG), and her 15 rebounds are actually one more than B.C.’s Swords. That’s with only one offensive rebound in each of the last two games. Georgia Tech is right behind B.C. in rebounding margin (although they’ve played two more games), plus-8.1 to plus-7.6.
A Rare Single: Ty Marshall also was held under wraps by the Blue Devils, as she was held to six points, on 3-for-8 shooting. The game snapped a streak of eight straight double-digit-scoring games for the freshman. The last time Marshall was held below 10 points was Dec. 21, 2010, at Portland State. Coincidentally, that was the last time she had as few as three field goals in a game and attempted fewer than 10 field goals.
Swat Team: The Yellow Jackets blocked four shots against the Blue Devils and have recorded at least three blocks in six of the last seven games. Marshall had a block against Duke, marking the fourth time in five games that she’s recorded a blocked-shot. Also Included in the four blocks was one by Deja Foster, Jasmine Blain’s first deflection of the year and Dawnn Maye’s first collegiate block, which came with 5:28 left in the game, when she knocked away Chloe Wells lay-up attempt.
The Sixth Man: That Georgia Tech has been outrebounded in back-to-back games is quite out of character. The Yellow Jackets have out-rebounded 17 of the 21 teams they’ve played this year and hadn’t been beaten on the boards in back-to-back games this year, despite having played the likes of UConn, Georgetown and Tennessee back-to-back-to-back earlier in the season. Tech is the top defensive rebounding team in the ACC, having grabbed 672 rebounds. That’s 77 more than second-place Maryland (it should be noted that the Jackets have played three more games).
