Tech Women Host Wake Forest Thursday

Jan. 28, 2004

–

Tech Hosts Wake Forest Thursday Night

The Yellow Jackets will return home following a two-game road swing to host Wake Forest Thursday at 7 p.m. The Jackets will be playing in just their second home game since they hosted Duke on January 8, as they’ve had four road contests and played host to Clemson in the five games since. Both teams are coming off wins in their last games, with Tech defeating the Seminoles, 73-62 in Tallahassee Sunday and the Demon Deacons dropping North Carolina, 69-67 in Winston-Salem Monday. The game will be broadcast live on WREK-Radio 91.1 FM in Atlanta and online at www.wrek.org. Richard Musterer will call the play-by-play with Kurt Hoyt providing the color analysis for the Jackets. Livestats for the basketball game will also be available at ramblinwreck.com.

Series Notes

* Georgia Tech leads the series with the Demon Deacons by a 27-19 margin, with 17 of those victories coming on the Yellow Jackets’ home court.

* Tech is 17-5 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum and just 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 the last two contests and four of the last five.

* The last time that the Jackets lost to Wake Forest was in 2002, when the Demon Deacons won 64-61 at Alexander Memorial Coliseum. That win marked the first time since 1990 that the Jackets lost to Wake in Atlanta.

* 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.

Jackets vs. Deacs: Last Time Out

After narrowly defeated the Demon Deacons 74-70 in the first game between these two teams last season, the Yellow Jackets took advantage of the home court to drop Wake Forest, 77-60 on March 3, 2003. In the game, Georgia Tech had two players to score more than 20 points, while another Yellow Jacket recorded double figures in scoring. Sonja Mallory led all players with 24 points while Fallon Stokes and Megan Isom added 23 and 14, respectively. Mallory also recorded 12 rebounds in the contest while blocking five Wake Forest shots. The Deacs were led by Tonia Brown, who had 14 points, and Eafton Hill, with 15 points off the bench. The Jackets shot 40.3 percent as compared to Wake Forest’s 32.8 and pulled down 49 rebounds, compared to the Demon Deacons’ 42. Georgia Tech also shot 40 percent from beyond the three-point arc, including four by Isom.

Tech Record Book Versus Wake Forest

* Georgia Tech’s .947 free throw percentage against the Demon Deacons in February of 1998 makred 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.

Looking at the Demon Deacons

For the fourth time in the last five years, the Demon Deacons defeated the 10th-ranked Tar Heels Monday night at Joel Coliseum in Winston-Salem. Liz Strunk scored 15 points and Tonia Brown added 14 points to lead Wake Forest, which broke a 10-game losing streak against ranked opponents. Strunk, a 73 percent shooter from the foul line, made two key free throws with 21 seconds left and Brown made one of two free throws with 13.5 seconds left to help the Demon Deacons. The Tar Heels had a final shot to tie the game but Nikita Bell missed a short jumper at the buzzer. Cotelia Bond-Young scored 13 points with 10 coming in the second half and Erin Ferrell also scored 13 for the Demon Deacons. In the game, the Deacs shot 40 percent from the field and held the Tar Heels to just 38 percent shooting. Wake Forest hit a total of nine three-pointers in the contest and converted on 80 percent of its free throws to make the difference in the contest. UNC hit seven threes but shot 60.9 percent from the charity stripe. The Demon Deacons outscored the Tar Heels 39-34 in the second half to earn the victory. Leading the Demon Deacons in both scoring and rebounding this season is sophomore Liz Strunk averaging 13.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per contest. Also scoring in double figures for Wake are Ern Ferrell (11.7 ppg) and Cotelia Bond-Young (11.6 ppg), while Ferrell is also third in rebounding with 4.3 per game. Bond-Young leads the squad with 66 assists on the season and stands second behind Strunk with 28 steals this year.

Last Time Out for the Jackets

Georgia Tech senior Megan Isom scored 20 points, including hitting 5-of-7 three pointers, to lead Georgia Tech to a 73-62 win at Florida State Sunday evening. The shooting guard from Decatur also went 5-for-6 from the charity striped and had an assist and a steal in the contest. Center Kasha Terry and freshman guard Stephanie Higgs also recorded double figures in scoring, with 12 points apiece. Terry added four blocks in the game while pulling down six rebounds and Higgs had two steals and a key block late in the game against the Seminoles. Point guard Alex Stewart dished out 10 assists in the game while recording six rebounds and converting on all six of her free throws. The Yellow Jackets shot a blistering 53.8 percent from beyond the three-point arc, a season high for Tech, and held the Seminoles to just 2-of-11 from three-point range. Tech also shot 43.1 percent from the field and 81.5 percent, including converting on 17-of-20 in the second half, from the free-throw line while outrebounding the Seminoles, 38-34.

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 ACC Properties. 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.