Fallon Stokes finished with 19 points in Tech’s win over NC State.
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Jan. 26, 2003
ATLANTA – Behind a game-high 20 points from senior center Sonja Mallory and 19 more from junior forward Fallon Stokes, the Georgia Tech women’s basketball team won its second-straight game with a 64-54 decision over NC State on Sunday afternoon at Alexander Memorial Coliseum in Atlanta, Ga.
“I thought that the entire team played well today and this is a great win for us,” said Tech head coach Agnus Berenato. “Once again, our coaching staff did a great job of preparing us for NC State and I think that really showed in the second half.”
The Yellow Jackets (13-6, 2-5 ACC) started slowly against the Wolfpack (9-9, 4-3 ACC), but got things going in the second half to pull away for the victory. Trailing by a 36-29 score at the intermission, Tech was able to get the ball inside early and often in the second half, as Mallory and Stokes took over offensively. Mallory had 12 points after the break, while Stokes added 11. The Jackets took their first lead since the 15:44 mark of the first half on a layup by Megan Harpring, taking a decisive 51-49 advantage with 8:16 remaining in the game. That bucket capped a 22-13 run for Tech in the half. Stokes upped the Jacket advantage to 53-49 on a jumper with 7:47 remaining.
Tech continued to increase its defensive effort, shutting down NC State’s interior players. The Jackets forced the Wolfpack into 11 second-half turnovers and limited the Pack’s leading scorer, Kaayla Chones to just four points after she had 11 in the first period. Down the stretch, Tech limited NC State to only five points in the final 11:24 seconds, including just two field goals over that stretch.
“Our defense really stepped up in the second half,” said Berenato. “We’ve really been stressing to the team that playing solid defense can get you easy points off of turnovers and you don’t have work so hard in your half-court set when you can get easy baskets in transition. I can’t say enough about what a great job everyone did on the defensive end today, especially people like Jessica Williams and Megan Harpring, who came off the bench and gave us a great lift defensively.”
In the first half, the Jackets had some early struggles shooting the ball, hitting on only five of their first 17 field goal attempts (29.4 percent), befor upping that percentage to 34.5 by the break on 10-for-29 shooting. NC State took a 32-20 lead with 3:40 to play on the strength of a 12-4 run that was led by seven points by Chones. Tech got eight points from both Mallory and Stokes in the first half, while Chones had 11 for State and Amy Simpson added eight more.
For the second-straight game, Tech controlled the boards, holding a 40-29 advantage on the glass, while also recording nine steals and forcing 17 turnovers in the game.
Mallory and Stokes were the only Yellow Jackets to score in double figures with their 20 and 19 points respectively. They were also Tech’s leaders on the boards, as Mallory recorded her eighth double-double of the year with 11 rebounds and Stokes just missed a double-double, finishing with nine boards. Junior guard Alex Stewart added seven points and six assists in the game, while rookie guard Megan Harpring had seven points.
“Sonja has really taken a leadership role on this team,” said Berenato. “She wants this so badly that she has stepped up for us in the last couple of games. Fallon was critical for us today also. We really felt that she could score off of the dribble today and even though she started out tentatively, she calmed down late in the game and did a great job.”
Chones, who finished with 15 points and eight rebounds, led NC State. Terah James, who finished the game with 10 points, joined her in double figures.
Georgia Tech will now have four days off before returning to the road to face Wake Forest and North Carolina. The Jackets will square off with the Demon Deacons on Friday, Jan. 31 at 7 p.m., before travelling to the Chapel Hill to face the Tar Heels on Feb. 2 at 1 p.m.
