Aug. 10, 2013
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BARCELONA – The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team wrapped up its visit Barcelona with a 69-65 win against the AMW French All-Stars. The Yellow Jackets made nine threes in its victory against the All-Stars and head to Paris tomorrow morning with a 1-1 record on its foreign tour.
“I think the adverse situation and the type of environment of the situation that we have been put in this early in the season has really been great for us,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “We have found out a lot about our team. The fact that we made nine 3-pointers today as a team in that kind of situation says a lot about the potential of this team. I am seeing a lot of potential for this team to be very special.”
For the second night in a row, sophomore Aaliyah Whiteside led the Yellow Jackets in scoring, this time registering 16 points. Freshman Kaela Davis notched 13 points of her own, which included three 3-pointers. Sophomore Roddreka Rogers added 10 points and nine rebounds while redshirt senior Shayla Bivins led the team in rebounding with 11 boards and five points.
Similar to yesterday’s exhibition game against the All-Stars, it was a close battle between the two teams throughout most of the game. The Yellow Jackets opened up the fourth quarter by making three consecutive 3-pointers. Freshman Donnaizha Fountain accounted for two of those 3-point baskets and following her second one, the Yellow Jackets led, 55-46.
“It was great to see some of our younger players like RaRa Fountain step up to make threes back-to-back to secure the lead and give us the go ahead points in the second half,” Joseph said. “I thought for her to have this type of experience in this point in her career was huge and was great to see her have that type of confidence.”
With 1:20 remaining on the clock, Tyaunna Marshall was fouled while driving to the basket. After making both the layup and her free throw, the Yellow Jackets took a 61-55 lead.
The All-Stars kept themselves in the game after sinking two free throws and a 3-pointer to pull themselves within one of Georgia Tech’s 61-60 advantage.
Accuracy on the free throw line is what helped the Yellow Jackets preserve its lead. Senior Dawnn Maye hit four-straight free throws while Marshall made two with 3.5 seconds left to help the Yellow Jackets to its first win on the foreign tour. Maye went 7-for-8 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Nariah Taylor opened up the game for the Yellow Jackets, scoring six-straight points for GT in the first two minutes of the exhibition contest. Taylor’s layup at 8:17 in the first quarter sparked an 11-0 Yellow Jacket run in which Davis scored eight points.
“I thought Kaela Davis came out and had a good game,” Joseph said. “She was really aggressive from the beginning of the game and really made a difference and impacted the game early on.”
Georgia Tech headed into the locker room with a 30-28 lead at halftime. Coming out of the break, the All-Stars took its first lead of the game, 33-30. The Yellow Jackets were able to take back the lead in the winding minutes of the third quarter thanks to two 3-pointers by Whiteside.
Georgia Tech faces Team France AMW on Monday, Aug. 12 and Tuesday, Aug. 13. Both contests will take place at the Stade Pierre de Coubertin and at 8 p.m. local time (2 p.m. ET) and are a part of Euro Jam Paris 2013.
Follow the Yellow Jacket’s trip through Europe on the #GTWBBSwarmsEurope Blog, on Twitter, @GTWBB, Instagram, GTWBB, and like the Yellow Jackets on Facebook, GTWomensBasketball..
. –RamblinWreck.com–
