Dec. 20, 2012
By Jon Cooper
Sting Daily
Georgia Tech has an opportunity to get back to .500 as it heads into Christmas break and concludes the 2012 home portion of its non-conference schedule when it tips-off against the University of Washington in a special weekday matinee. Tip-off at McCamish Pavilion is scheduled for noon.
The Yellow Jackets snapped their three-game losing streak their last time out, walloping Alcorn State, 76-49, on Sunday afternoon at McCamish Pavilion. Tyaunna Marshall sealed her ACC Player of the Week award, scoring 28 points, to match her career-high and Dawnn Maye had 12 points with 10 assists, for her third double-double of her career. Tech used a 22-6 run to take a 33-23 halftime lead and was never challenged in the second half.
The Huskies made it five wins in six games in their last time out, on Sunday, taking care of Idaho, 62-48. Guard Jazmine Davis scored a game-high 19 points and forward Aminah Williams had a 12-point, 14-rebound double-double in leading UW. The Huskies jumped out to a 13-2 lead, led 29-22 at the half and pulled away in the final 20. The Huskies shot only 28 percent for the game but held the Vandals to only 27 percent, while forcing 22 turnovers.
Today’s game can be seen on ESPN3 with Nolan Alexander and Kurt Hoyt calling the action. Fans can always catch the action 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: The only other time these schools have met was on Dec. 23, 2010, in Seattle, a 60-27 rout for Georgia Tech. The game marked the homecoming of Alex Montgomery, who grew up in Tacoma, Wash. Montgomery had quite a day in her return home, scoring a game-high 20 points and pulling down eight rebounds. The senior hit a three five seconds into the game, scored Tech’s first seven points and nine of its first 10. Marshall added 14 points with seven rebounds for the Jackets, who held the Huskies without a field goal for more than 15 minutes in the second half to put the game away.
Ty-mendous: Ty Marshall only played one game last week, but it was good enough to earn her first ACC Player of the Week Award. The junior guard scored 28 points on a sizzling 12-of-15 shooting, in the victory over Alcorn State. In addition to her season-high number of field-goals, Marshall also had five rebounds, three assists and three steals. To show how balanced she has been on both ends of the floor, Marshall is the only player in the ACC to rank in the top 10 in scoring (17.9 ppg, second), rebounding (7.8 rig) and steals (2.2 spg).
Mix and Match: It’s truly been a season of experimentation for Georgia Tech head coach MaChelle Joseph. Joseph has used four different starting lineups thus far and has gotten mixed results from all four, as all four of the combinations have at least one win and all four have at least one loss. The only players to start all four games are Marshall and point guard Dawnn Maye.
Double Doin’ It My Way: A double-double by any other name is as sweet for Maye. The junior point guard recorded her third career double-double on Sunday. Not one has been of the standard points/rebounds variety. On Sunday, Maye went for 12 points and 10 assists. It was her second double-double of the season, with her first one, a 23-point, 10-steal game against Marquette on Nov. 18. Her first college double-double came on Nov. 13, 2011, a 14-point, 10-assist game against Old Dominion.
To Three or Not To Three: Something is going to have to give in today’s game, as Georgia Tech is one of the top three-point defending teams in the ACC, while Washington is one of the Pac-10’s top three-point shooting teams. The Yellow Jackets are limiting teams to a .236 success rate from behind the arc (30 of 127), and 3.3 three-point field goals made per game. The Huskies convert at .330, having made 67 of 203, and average 7.4 threes per game, tops in the Pac-12. They have three of the conference’s top seven three-point shooters, in leader Kristi Kingma (24 3PFGMs, 2.67 per game), Jazmine Davis is fourth (20, 2.22) and Talia Walton (16, 1.78), seventh. Over the last four games, three of them against Purdue, Georgia and Duke, all ranked teams, Georgia Tech has allowed opponents a TOTAL of eight three-pointers.
The Sixth Man: Center Danielle Hamilton-Carter is on a hitting streak defensively. She’s swatted away shots in back-to-back games for the second time this season and had her first career multi-blocks game Sunday…MaChelle Joseph has faired quite well against the Pac-12 in her career, as she carries a 5-1 record into today’s game — that’s an .800 winning percentage. Her Tech teams are 2-0 against Arizona and Oregon and is 1-0 vs. Washington. The Jackets are 0-1 in their only game against UCLA…Freshman Aaliyah Whiteside is in a groove, as she’s shooting .394 (13-for-33), and .353 (6-for-17) from three. Take away the 3-for-13 and 0-for-5 against Duke and she’s over 45 percent (10-for-22) and 50 percent from three (6-for-12)…Maye has taken great care of the ball over her last three games, as she’s handed out 22 assists vs. only nine turnovers, a 2.4:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. That run followed a stretch of three games in four where she had more turnovers than assists. Her six steals against Alcorn were the most since she had 10 against Marquette on Nov. 18.
GEORGIA TECH LEADING SCORER: Tyaunna Marshall, 17.9
WASHINGTON LEADING SCORER: Jazmine Davis, 18.8 ppg
GEORGIA TECH LEADING REBOUNDER: Tyaunna Marshall, 7.8 rpg
WASHINGTON LEADING REBOUNDER: Aminah Williams, 11.8 rpg
GEORGIA TECH SCORING: 66.6 ppg
OPPONENT: 67.2 ppg
WASHINGTON SCORING: 63.3 ppg
OPPONENT: 58.2 ppg
WASHINGTON PLAYER TO WATCH: Jazmine Davis – The 5-7 point guard has picked up in her sophomore season where she left off as a freshman, when she set a school-record by scoring 535 points in winning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, the first Husky ever to win the award. This season, Davis is leading the team in scoring and is second in the Pac-12, averaging 18.8 points per game. She’s been draining threes at a .392 clip, which is sixth in the Pac-12 and is fourth the conference in three-point field goals made (20). Davis is second in minutes (39.1 mpg), only to teammate Kingma, and also is the Huskies’ best free throw shooter, converting at over .732 percent. Of course, she is a superb passer, dishing out 3.2 assists per game, seventh in the Pac-12.
