Feb. 29, 2004
Winston-Salem, NC – Cotelia Bond-Young nailed a jumper with less than a second remaining to give Wake Forest (11-16, 4-12) a 63-61 victory over Georgia Tech (14-14, 5-11) Sunday afternoon at Lawrence Joel Coliseum. The win marked the first time since 1990 that the Demon Deacons have swept the regular-season series with the Yellow Jackets.
Fallon Stokes led the Jackets on the afternoon, scoring 16 points and pulling down eight rebounds while registering a pair of blocks in the game. Stephanie Higgs and Kasha Terry also finished the contest in double-figures, as Higgs scored 15 while recording six rebounds and two steals and Terry had 14, including 12 in the second half, nine rebounds, and five blocks in the game.
After Wake Forest pulled ahead by five with 7:58 remaining in the contest, the Jackets went on a 6-1 run, tying the game at 55-55 with 6:17 on the clock. Jennifer Johnson put the Deacs ahead by three at 5:09 but the Jackets pulled within one with 4:50 on the clock. Neither team would score again until Terry hit a jumper, her fifth in the half, with 2:53 remaining in the contest to put the Jackets ahead, 59-58. Jennifer Johnson answered with a three-pointer at 1:27 for Wake Forest before the Jackets’ Jessica Williams hit a layup with 53.6 seconds remaining to tie the contest. Williams had a chance to put Tech up by one when she was fouled on the play, but she failed to convert on the free throw.
In the first eight-and-a-half minutes of the second half there were six ties and six lead changes. Tech tied the game at 30-30 on a Stephanie Higgs jumper in the lane before Wake pulled ahead by two on a pair of free throws by Erin Ferrell. Alex Stewart had a fast-break layup to tie the game at 32-32. Cotelia Bond-Young put Wake ahead by two, the Jackets answered with a pair of free throws by Stewart and a jumper by Terry.
The Jackets outrebounded the Deacons 44-39, but shot just 58.3 percent from the free throw line, while Wake Forest connected on 10-of-12 from the charity stripe. Tech blocked seven Wake shots on the afternoon but turned the ball over 17 times.
The Demon Deacons carried a 30-26 lead into the locker room at halftime after Wake Forest ended the first half with a 7-2 run, keyed by a pair of layups from Liz Strunk with less than a minute remaining in the half. The Jackets led by as much as eight points eight and a half minutes into the contest and then again with 9:21 remaining in the first half after Megan Isom hit a three-pointer, making the score 16-8 in favor of the Jackets. Stokes led the Jackets with 10 points in the frame while Higgs added nine. Strunk hit three of the Deacs’ last six buckets and scored a total of 10 points in the half.
Wake Forest was led in the scoring column by Ferrell, with 17 points, while Strunk and Bond-Young added 12 apiece for the Deacons.
Georgia Tech will return to North Carolina at the end of the week to begin play in the ACC Tournament. The Jackets, the No. 8 seed in tournament, will face Wake Forest on Friday in a contest that is set to begin at 11 a.m. The Yellow Jackets will broadcast the game on WREK-Radio, 91.1 FM in Atlanta, and online at www.wrek.org, while livestats for the contest are available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
