Jan. 26, 2013
By Jon Cooper
Sting Daily
With 10 games to go in the regular season, Georgia Tech looks to get back in the win column as it hosts NC State this afternoon. Tip-off at McCamish Pavilion is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
The Yellow Jackets have lost five games in a row, but the young lineup is starting to grow up and come together the way head coach MaChelle Joseph expected. Friday night was another inspired effort against a ranked foe despite falling short, 76-71, at No. 22/21 Florida State. Ty Marshall had 26 points and eight rebounds and freshman Brittany Jackson added 17. The Jackets outrebounded the Seminoles, 36-34, 20-13 on the offensive glass. Tech led 34-33 at the half and led 68-65 with 5:00 to play, but shot 1-for-6 and committed two turnovers down the stretch, as FSU closed on a decisive 11-3 run.
The Wolfpack earned its first conference victory its last time out, topping Virginia Tech, 58-39, Thursday night at Reynolds Coliseum. Junior guard Myisha Goodwin-Coleman scored a game-high 12 points and Marissa Kastanek added 10 points and six rebounds for State, which hit a season-high seven threes and shot a season-best 58.3 from three. Defensively, they held the Hokies to an opponents’ season-low 26.4 percent shooting. The ‘Pack raced out to a 16-0 lead and led 30-18 at intermission. The 39 points were the fewest they’d allowed in a conference game since 2008 and they turned 19 turnovers into 19 points, earning a 19-5 edge in points off turnovers.
Today’s game will be the 63rd meeting in a series that dates back to 1980. The Wolfpack hold a 40-22 overall edge but the Yellow Jackets lead 16-13 edge in home games and have won four straight and seven of eight. Tech is 8-4 against State in the MaChelle Joseph Era and is 6-1 in home games. This will be the teams’ first meeting in McCamish Pavilion and the first of two meetings this season. They’ll meet again in Raleigh on Feb. 17.
The game can be seen on ESPN3 with Kurt Hoyt and Wade Rogers calling the action. The game also can be heard on WREK, 91.1 FM, or online at www.WREK.org with Richard Musterer and LaQuananisha Adams on the call. Fans can get live stats on RamblinWreck.com and also can get instant updates by following the team on Twitter at @GTWBB and can get more information on the team by liking them on Facebook, GTWomensBasketball.
And now, the Starting Five for today’s game.
The Last Time We Met: No. 15 Georgia Tech shot 53 percent, including a blazing 69 percent in the first half, and routed NC State, 87-61, in the Semifinals of the ACC Tournament last March 3. Three different Jackets scored in double-figures, led by Ty Marshall, who had 20 points and nine rebounds. Metra Walthour added 13 with a game-high six assists and Sasha Goodlett had a 12-point, 10 rebound double-double. Guard Mo Bennett supplied seven points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals 17 minutes off the bench, while Frida Fogdemark and Sydney Wallace each drained a pair of threes as Tech shot 41.2 percent from downtown (7-for-17). Holding a slim 11-10 lead a little less than five minutes in, the Jackets went on a 10-1 run as five different players hit shots (Walthour, Marshall, LaQuananisha Adams, Dawnn Maye, and Bennett) to open a 21-11 lead. They’d extend the lead to 18 at the half and would lead by as much as 36 with 8:12 to play. Tech dominated the boards, holding a 53-28 edge and outscored State 32-12 off the bench.
Feast or Famine: Georgia Tech has had great success over the last 10 games against NC State, having won seven of 10. A good barometer of how things will go is how close the game is. Aside from last year’s 16-point blowout in the ACC Tournament, Georgia Tech’s average margin of victory against NC State has been 8.3 points. In its three losses, Tech has lost by an average of 14.7 points. Both teams have been in their share of close games this season, as the Yellow Jackets have played in four games decided by five-or-fewer points. They’ve broken even, going 2-2. State has been in an ACC-high five such games and are 2-3.
Top-Ten Ty: Junior Ty Marshall has shone as one of the top all-around players in the ACC. Heading into play Saturday, Marshall was the conference’s only player to rank in the top 10 in scoring (15.9 ppg, third), rebounding (8.1 rpg, seventh), and steals (2.3 spg, seventh). She also was fourth in offensive rebounding (3.5 ORB per game) and was 1/10th of a board per game out of the top 10 in rebounding (7.0). In conference play, Marshall is one of only three players to rank in the top 15 in scoring, rebounding and steals — she is 1/10th of a rebound from being top 10 in all three categories there as well.
Into the Fire: Coach Joseph is giving the kids a chance to make a first impression by shaking up her starting lineup, but chose one of the toughest stretches of the season to do so — the last two games, against No. 10/10 Maryland and at No. 22/21 Florida State. Joseph inserted freshmen Breana McDonald and Roddreka Rogers at the forwards and center Nariah Taylor, and sophomore guard Sydney Wallace, while sitting Marshall and freshman Brittany Jackson, center Danielle Hamilton-Carter and point Dawnn Maye. Marshall, Jackson and Maye represent the team’s top three scorers. Marshall and Hamilton-Carter are the team’s top two rebounders.
Jump Start: In the two games since Joseph has started bringing Marshall in off the bench, the junior has turned up her game. She has scored 44 points (18 and 26), and has scored 18 field goals on 42.9 percent shooting. These recent two games equal her second-best two-game stretch of the season — she had 23 FGMs on Dec. 6 vs. Duke and 28 on the 16th vs. Alcorn State, hitting 22-of-33 attempts. Marshall, who comes in averaging 15.9 ppg, has seen her points-per-game total go up in back-to-back games for the first time since those two December games. She had been at 15.2 following the Jan. 17th game at Miami.
The Sixth Man: The Jackets will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Among the events will be a question-and-answer session with Tech female student-athletes prior to the game, a halftime ceremony honoring the 2013 class of Women Out Front and a postgame autograph session with the team…Roddreka Rogers has played 30 minutes in each of the last two games and is starting to put up solid numbers on the glass. In the last two games she has grabbed 11 rebounds, seven of them off the offensive glass. The seven ORBs equal her total in her first six career ACC games. Her seven boards and four offensive boards against FSU were her best in conference play. Her season high for rebounds is nine and for offensive rebounds is five…Georgia Tech has out-rebounded its opponents on the offensive glass in four of the last five games…With her two three-point field goals against Florida State, freshman Brittany Jackson has now made 19 in ACC play. That’s one more than the rest of the team combined…Jackson also has made at least seven field goals in three of the last five games and has raised her scoring average to 14.0 within the conference, trailing only Marshall…Friday night was the first game this season that the Jackets lost when leading inside of 5:00. They had been 8-0…NC State has shot at least 50 percent in five games this season, something they did one time last season. Tech is 0-3 when opponents shoot 50 percent or better, but all three games have been on the road — at No. 14/13 Purdue, at North Carolina and at No. 22/21 Florida State.
GEORGIA TECH LEADING SCORER: Tyaunna Marshall, 15.9 ppg
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LEADING SCORER: Kody Burke, 14.6 ppg
GEORGIA TECH LEADING SCORER (ACC): Tyaunna Marshall, 15.9 ppg
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LEADING SCORER (ACC): Kody Burke, 13.1 ppg
GEORGIA TECH LEADING REBOUNDER: Tyaunna Marshall, 8.1 rpg
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LEADING REBOUNDER: Kody Burke, 7.6 rpg
GEORGIA TECH LEADING REBOUNDER(ACC): Tyaunna Marshall, 7.0 rpg
NORTH CAROLINA STATE LEADING REBOUNDER (ACC): Kody Burke, 7.5 rpg
GEORGIA TECH SCORING: 65.8/64.1 ppg.
OPPONENT: 66.7/72.9 ppg.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE SCORING: 70.2/60.6 (ACC) ppg. OPPONENT: 65.7/70.8 (ACC) ppg.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE PLAYER TO WATCH: Kody Burke – The 6-2 junior forward is trouble for opponents at either end of the floor. The team’s leading scorer and rebounder, the Northridge, Calif., native has led State in scoring seven times in the last 10 games and in rebounding six times in that span. Heading into Saturday’s games, Burke is the only player in the ACC to rank in the top 10 in scoring (7th), rebounds (10th), and blocked shots (3rd, with 1.3 bpg) and is third in the conference in field goals made with 124 (Maryland’s Tianna Hawkins leads with 152, Ty Marshall is second at 125). Burke has scored in double figures 16 times in State’s 20 games and is in the conference’s top 20 with her 49.4 percent shooting. Defensively, the shot-blocker extraordinaire ranks sixth all-time in school history and is eight rejections from moving into fifth place. Her season-high is four vs. Charleston Southern on Nov. 20, while her career-best is seven, Feb. 10, 2011.
