Aug. 9, 2013
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BARCELONA – In its first game of its 2013 foreign tour, the Georgia Tech women’s basketball team suffered an overtime loss to the AMW France All-Stars, 78-74. Sophomore Aaliyah Whiteside scored a team-high 17 points in the exhibition game while fellow sophomore Roddreka Rogers grabbed 12 rebounds. The two teams square off again tomorrow at 7 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET).
Whiteside hit three 3-pointers against the All-Stars while junior Sydney Wallace made two of her own on her way to 11 points. Twelve of senior Tyaunna Marshall’s 15 points came in the second half of the game and senior Dawnn Maye contributed 11 points and seven rebounds this evening.
“I think playing these types of games right now really helps us get prepared for the season,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “It shows us the things we need to work on. It shows us things we do well. I really felt like playing in this environment is really good for our team.”
The lead bounced back and forth between the two teams for most of the night until the Yellow Jackets pulled ahead at 50-43 at the end of the third period. During the fourth period, Marshall held the All-Stars off by scoring 10 of her 15 points. The All-Stars started to close in on Georgia Tech’s lead and pulled within three-points, 67-64, after Maud Medenou hit back-to-back jump shots.
With 1.9 seconds on the clock, the All-Stars inbounded the ball to Kadidia Minte who took a shot from midcourt that banked right in and sent the contest into overtime. Marshall would give the Yellow Jackets a fast start to the extra period, hitting a jump shot 50 seconds into overtime. Maye sank both of her free throws to give the Yellow Jackets a 71-67 advantage.
A 3-point shot by Alex Tchangove with 50.2 seconds left in overtime tied the game back up again at 74-74. During Tchangove’s shot, Elydya Kanefors was fouled underneath the basket and headed to the line for two shots. Kanefors made both free throws and a jump shot short after to secure the 78-74 victory.
The exhibition contest was also the first time that freshmen Kaela Davis, Donnaizha Fountain and Gabrielle Holston saw game action with the Yellow Jackets. Fountain scored five points while Holston made two free throws and grabbed one rebound. Davis played significant minutes, registering four rebounds.
“It’s tough on your incoming freshman because they’ve only had 10 days of practice,” Joseph said. “A lot of the things we were faced with, they haven’t been faced with yet. This is a really good experience for us and I know are really excited about having an opportunity tomorrow to come back and see if we have learned from some of the things we didn’t do as well today.”
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. –RamblinWreck.com–
