Feb. 27, 2004
ATLANTA – The Yellow Jackets will face Wake Forest in their final regular-season game Sunday at 2 p.m. at Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum in Winston-Salem, NC. Tech is coming off a 15-point victory over NC State Thursday while Wake Forest returns to North Carolina for the final home contest for three Demon Deacon seniors after dropping its seventh-consecutive league game. The game will be aired over Georgia Tech’s student station, WREK-Radio 91.1 FM in Atlanta, and online at www.wrek.org. Livestats for the contest will be available at www.ramblinwreck.com.
Over the past five years, Georgia Tech has gone 1-4 in its season finales, with the only loss coming in 1999 at Maryland. That contest against the Terps was also the last time that the Jackets closed the regular season on the road, as they’ve faced three ACC teams and Morris Brown at home in the four games since. This will be the third time in the last four seasons that Georgia Tech will be facing Wake Forest to close the season, as the Jackets defeated Wake 79-63 in 2001 and 77-60 last season.
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Series Notes
* Georgia Tech leads the series with the Demon Deacons by a 27-20 margin, with eight of those victories coming on the Demon Deacons’ home court.
* Tech is 17-5 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum and 8-14 in Winston-Salem. The Jackets have also won both contests played on neutral sites between these two teams.
* The first game between Tech and Wake occurred on November 25, 1979, with the Jackets winning, 94-67. That victory marked the only series-opener win that Georgia Tech has had against an ACC opponent as well as the Jackets’ first ACC victory ever.
* Tech won four of the first five games against Wake Forest, and its longest winning streak versus the Demon Deacons was from February, 1996 through February, 1998, when the Jackets won six consecutive games.
* The Yellow Jackets’ first road ACC victory came against the Demon Deacons on January 31, 1982, 64-53 in Winston-Salem.
* Georgia Tech has won two of the last three contests and four of the last six.
* The most points that the Jackets ever scored in a contest versus the Demon Deacons was in 1987, when Tech earned a 95-82 victory over Wake Forest in Winston-Salem. The fewest number of points in the series for the Jackets occurred in a 54-49 loss to the Deacs in Winston Salem on January 5, 1985.
* The last time that the Demon Deacons swept the yearly series was in 1990, and they have only swept the series four times in history.
Jackets vs. Demon Deacons: Last Time Out
Cotelia Bond-Young hit a three-pointer to make the score 55-53 with 1:10 on the clock in overtime and then put the game out of reach with a pair of free throws with nine seconds remaining to give Wake Forest a 57-55 victory over Georgia Tech. The Jackets pulled within two on a fast-break layup by Alex Stewart with five seconds left in overtime and was fouled on the play, giving Tech a chance to pull within one. Stewart missed the free throw to give the Jackets a chance to win the game, but Georgia Tech missed a pair of layups, giving the Demon Deacons their first back-to-back conference victories since the 2001-02 season. Georgia Tech missed four of five free throws in overtime, and made only 4-of-11 in the game, while the Demon Deacons converted on 10-of-15 from the charity stripe. The Demon Deacons tied the contest 30-30 with 16:17 remaining in regulation before the Jackets went on a 9-0 run with a pair of buckets by Megan Isom, including a three-pointer to make the score 39-31 at 13:55. Wake Forest remained close, however, and eventually tied the game, 46-46, with 2:32 remaining in the contest. Bond-Young’s pass was stolen by Fallon Stokes with 1:42 remaining on the clock, and she took the ball to the hoop for a layup to put the Jackets ahead by two. A pair of free throws by Liz Strunk again tied the game at 48-48 with 1:21. The Jackets had a couple of chances to win the game with less than a minute remaining, but neither a three-pointer by Isom or a jumper by Jessica Williams would fall in. Williams led the Jackets with career-highs in points (21) and rebounds (14) while recording the first double-double of her career. Stewart followed Williams in the scoring column, with 13 points, while pulling down nine rebounds and dishing out six assists. The Jackets shot 44.6 percent from the field, including scoring 40 points in the paint, but Wake Forest hit nine three-pointers and held the Jackets to just one in the entire game. The Demon Deacons had four players score in double-figures, led by Liz Strunk with 14 and Tonia Brown who had 13, including four from beyond the three-point arc. Bond-Young and Bianca Brown added 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Tech Record Book Versus Wake Forest
* Georgia Tech’s .947 free throw percentage against the Demon Deacons in February of 1998 marked the highest free throw percentage in a game in Yellow Jackets history.
* The Jackets had 33 fouls called against them in a contest against Wake Forest in February of 1992, which still remains the second-highest fouls total for Georgia Tech in a single contest.
* In 1997, the Yellow Jackets committed a Tech record-tying low for turnovers in a contest against Wake Forest, giving the ball up just six times. That tied a 16-year old record set in 1981 against Georgia Southern.
* The highest point total that a Georgia Tech player ever scored against the Demon Deacons occurred in 1997, when Kisha Ford scored 31.
* Dawn Smith hit 3-of-3 from beyond the three-point arc against Wake in 1995 for the highest three-point percentage in a Georgia Tech single game.
* LeeAnn Woodhull’s 21 rebounds against Wake Forest is tied for third for most rebounds by a Georgia Tech player in a game.
* Fallon Stokes’ four steals and two blocks against Wake Forest in March of last year remain career highs for her.
* Jessica Williams’ 21 points on 10 field goals and 14 attempts and her 14 rebounds in 35 minutes of play in the last game were all career highs for her.
The Tech-Wake Pipeline
Georgia Tech women’s basketball employs three Wake Forest graduates, including two that played women’s basketball for the Deacs.
Brenda Mock Kirkpatrick, a four-time member of the ACC Honor Roll and Academic All-America selection, played from 1997-2001 for the Demon Deacons and remains fifth in the Wake annals with a .481 field goal percentage, tied for ninth with 111 career games, and 10th in career rebounds, with 568. An 2001 graduate of Wake and assistant coach in her second season with Georgia Tech, Kirkpatrick was the MVP of the Demon Deacon team in 2001, named the Most Improved Player of the 2000 team, received the Wake women’s basketball Academic Award in both 2000 and 2001 and was named “Iron Deac” in 1998, 99 and 2001. The same year, she was recognized as a National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) All-American Athlete and was named to the Honorable Mention all-ACC team.
LaChina Robinson, a 2002 graduate of Wake Forest, begin her first year as the administrative coordinator for Georgia Tech women’s basketball this season following an internship with the Atlantic Coast Conference. In her four years at Wake, Robinson was named to the ACC Honor Roll three times, earned the 2002 Academic Award and was named to the 1999 ACC All-Freshman team. She stands third in Wake History with 77 career blocks, tied for third with the most rebounds in a single game (20 vs. Radford), tied for seventh with 112 games in her career, and 15th with 475 rebounds in her four years as a Deac.
Rounding out the graduates from Wake Forest is the Georgia Tech Director of Women’s Basketball Operations Kyle Snipes. A four-year manager of the Wake Forest men’s basketball team, Snipes graduated in 1995 with a communications degree. He is also a self-proclaimed master of the figure-four leglock and obsessed fan of the New York Yankees.
Looking at the Deacs
Virginia raced out to a 17-point first-half lead which was enough to hold off Wake Forest and sophomore Liz Strunk’s game-high 25 points, including 17 in the second-half, for a 75-61 victory in ACC women’s basketball action from University Hall Thursday. Strunk went 9-for-14 from the field, including a career-best five 3-point field goals while grabbing nine rebounds. Sophomore Cotelia Bond-Young was the only other Demon Deacon in double figures. She added 12. Wake Forest was out-rebounded 46-39, including surrendering 19 on the offensive glass. Virginia shot 48.5% (16-for-33) from the field, while the Demon Deacons knocked down 33.3% (11-for-33) from the floor. The Cavaliers controlled the paint in the opening 20-minutes, outscoring the Demon Deacons 20-10 in the paint. The Demon Deacons are led this season by sophomore Liz Strunk. She leads the team in scoring (13.7 points per game), rebounding (5.2 rpg), field goals (127), field goal percentage (.429) and free throws (75). Joining Strunk in double figures are Erin Ferrell and Cotelia Bond-Young. Ferrell is averaging 11.0 points per game and is shooting .445 from the field. She is also pulling down an average of 4.5 rebounds per game. Bond-Young leads the team with 87 assists and 36 three-pointers this season.
Last Time Out for the Jackets
Senior Megan Isom led a trio of Yellow Jackets in double figures as Georgia Tech defeated NC State, 76-61, on Senior Night. The win ended the Pack’s six-game winning streak in conference play while keeping alive the Jackets’ hopes of moving up in the conference standings. Isom scored 20 points in a game for the third time this season while pulling down six rebounds and dishing out a game-high five assists for the Yellow Jackets. Seniors Fallon Stokes and Alex Stewart scored 16 points apiece for Tech, playing a total of 71 minutes against the Wolfpack. The Jackets buckled down with 1:20 remaining on the clock, making a pair of jumpers, including a three-pointer by senior Jasmina Pacariz with 0.7 seconds remaining in the game. Tech also converted on 6-of-8 from the line during that time, helping Tech to a 75.9 percent mark from the charity stripe, its highest percentage since the Virginia contest in the middle of January. The Jackets attempted 29 shots from the free throw line, as compared to State’s 17 in the game, improving to 5-0 in conference games when attempting more free throws than their opponents. Georgia Tech head coach MaChelle Joseph used her fifth-different starting lineup of the season, inserting Pacariz with regular senior starters Stokes, Stewart and Isom on a night that the Yellow Jackets honored the seniors in the last regular-season home games of their career. Pacariz made the most of her first career start, scoring her first points in two seasons on a three-pointer with 17:22 remaining in the game and hitting her final bucket with under a second to play. Tech took a 14-point lead when Megan Harpring hit a pair of free throws with 16:41 remaining in the contest to push her team-leading free throw percentage to .900 on the season. State answered with a pair of buckets by Ashley Key and Kaayla Chones to make the score 46-35 in favor of the Jackets going into the first media timeout of the second half. After each team added another bucket, Georgia Tech went on a 7-0 run, keyed by back-to-back buckets by Jessica Williams, extending its lead to 16 points with 11:52 remaining on the clock.
