March 20, 2003
ATLANTA – The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team, which has been seeded 10th in the East Region, will square off with seventh-seeded Virginia Tech when the 2003 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament gets under way at Purdue’s Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Ind.
The game between the Yellow Jackets (20-10, 8-8 ACC) and Hokies (21-9, 10-6 Big East) will tip off at 11:14 a.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN2, with Pam Ward calling the play-by-play and Jimmy Dykes providing color analysis. The meeting between the two schools will be the first in history, while Tech holds a 5-6 all-time record against teams from the Big East.
With its win over Florida State in the ACC quarterfinals, Georgia Tech has matched the most wins in a season since the program moved to the Division I level. The Jackets also won 20 games during the 1992 campaign, in which they won the NWIT title.
The Yellow Jackets will be making their first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 1993 season, when Tech lost in the first round to Northwestern, in their only other NCAA trip. The NCAA bid marks the fourth-straight year that the Jackets have reached post-season play.
Tech has been one of the ACC’s hottest teams down the stretch in 2003, winning five of its final six games, with the lone loss coming at the hands of second-ranked Duke in the ACC semis.
Senior center Sonja Mallory has been the team leader throughout the year, earning first-team All-ACC and WBCA All-District II honors. She is the team leader in scoring (16.5 ppg), rebounding (9.1 rpg) and blocks (1.83 bpg).
Junior forward Fallon Stokes earned second-team ACC All-Tournament honors after scoring 32 points and grabbing 18 rebounds in two games to lead the Jackets. Stokes is the fifth-leading scorer in the ACC with her 15.4-point-per-game average and has scored in double figures in Tech’s last six games and in all but four games overall this season.
Rookie guard Megan Harpring continues to be a solid performer for the Jackets since joining the starting lineup six games ago. In that time, she is averaging 10.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, while Tech is 5-1 in that time.
All Georgia Tech women’s basketball games can be heard locally on 91.1 WREK-FM and around the world at www.ramblinwreck.com. Full tournament game notes for the Yellow Jackets and Hokies can be found at the Women’s Basketball Tournament link on Tech’s official website as well.
-GT-
