Dec. 24, 2002
ATLANTA — The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team will put its seven-game win streak on the line Friday when it faces in-state rival and 22nd-ranked Georgia as part of the Russell Athletic Shootout at Philips Arena beginning at 3 p.m. The game will be the second half of the doubleheader, with Clemson and Auburn squaring off in the first contest at 12:30 p.m. Both games will be televised on the ACC’s Regional Sports Network, which includes Fox Sports Net South and the Sunshine Network.
Off to its best start since an 8-1 mark to open the 1995-96 season, the Yellow Jackets (8-1) captured a seventh-straight win with a comeback 69-53 victory over Fordham on Saturday. Georgia (6-3) enters the game ranked 22nd in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll and 24th in the Associated Press Poll and will be looking to bounce back from a loss at Houston a week ago. This will mark the second-straight year that the game will be contested at Philips Arena as part of the ACC/SEC doubleheader and seventh-consecutive year it has been played on a neutral floor.
Georgia Tech held an opponent to under 40 percent shooting for the eight time this season against the Rams, keeping its record at a perfect 8-0 in those contests. Fordham was also the Jackets’ eighth opponent to be held under 70 points on the season.
The Jackets trailed at the half for only the third time this year against the Rams, but rallied for a win for the second time. Tech also found an outside shooting game that it had sought, hitting seven threes in the game on 15 attempts.
Junior guard Megan Isom turned in the top week of her career, as she averaged 18.5 points and 4.0 steals in two games. Against Fordham, Isom scored a career-high 25 points, on the strength of a career-best seven threes in the game. She is now tied for the ACC lead with 19 made three pointers on the year and is tops in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio at 2.83.
Isom’s back court mate Alex Stewart was also stellar against the Rams, registering her first double-double of the season with 13 points and a career-high-tying 11 assists in the game. Stewart continues to lead the ACC in assists per game with a 6.56 average.
Senior center Sonja Mallory finished the Fordham game with 13 points, scoring in double figures for the 12th-straight game.
Georgia Tech’s women’s basketball games can be heard locally on 91.1 WREK-FM and online at www.ramblinwreck.com.
