Feb. 26, 2015
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ATLANTA (AP) – Kaela Davis scored 24 points, Zaire O’Neil and Aaliyah Whiteside added 12 points apiece and Georgia Tech snapped a 37-game series losing streak to Duke, beating the No. 16 Blue Devils 71-62 on Thursday night.
“Obviously I’m very happy, excited and proud of my team,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “I thought that we battled and competed for 40 minutes. I thought Duke made some adjustments against the triangle and two we were playing against them and got some easy baskets in the second half. I thought that we responded well. We made some clutch shots when we needed to to stop their runs. Those were shots we weren’t able to hit against Notre Dame and Miami and we were able to knock them down tonight. I think those experiences paid off for our young team.”
Knocking off Duke for the first time since Feb. 27, 1994, the Yellow Jackets (16-13, 6-9 Atlantic Coast Conference) led from the game’s early minutes, were up by 18 early in the second half and by 10 with 55 seconds remaining on Davis’ jumper.
Rebecca Greenwell and Azura Stevens both scored 16 points for the Blue Devils (19-9, 10-5 ACC). Duke has lost three straight.
The Blue Devils missed 14 of their first 15 3-point attempts and finished just 3 for 18 beyond the arc.
Duke, which closes the regular season Sunday against No. 15 North Carolina, has lost its second-most games under coach Joanne P. McCallie. The Devils went 25-10 in her first season, 2007-08.
The Yellow Jackets hit the road on Saturday to wrap up the season at Wake Forest at 2 p.m.
Prior to the game against Duke, senior Sydney Wallace was recognized in Georgia Tech’s senior day for her contributions as a Yellow Jacket.
Tech Tidbits: The win broke a 37-game losing streak to Duke … Tech’s last win against Duke was at home on February 27, 1994, 61-56 … This is the Yellow Jackets’ first win against a top-25 opponent since the Jackets defeated No. 13/11 North Carolina on Feb. 6, 2014 last season … Joseph has won 12 games against ranked opponents in her career … The Yellow Jackets held Duke to a season-low 19 points in the first half and held them to a 20.6 shooting percentage (7-for-34) …. Sophomore Kaela Davis led the Jackets in scoring (24 points) for the 20th game this season with her 14th 20 point game of the year … Four Jackets scored in double figures for the seventh game this season … Junior Roddreka Rogers led the Jackets in rebounding (13 rebounds) for the 17th time this season with her 13th double figure rebounding game of the year and fifth in the row.
