Feb. 27, 2014
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team (18-10, 8-7 ACC) used a strong offensive showing to defeat Florida State, 86-78, at the Donald L. Tucker Center Thursday night.
“I thought we got some really good minutes obviously from Sydney Wallace in the first half,” head coach MaChelle Joseph said. “It was one of the best first halves I’ve ever seen her play. It was unfortunate to lose her there in the second half. I thought that our other players did a really good job of stepping up and carrying the load. That was a really tough game against a very good Florida State team. I thought Dawnn Maye had a huge game in Sydney’s absence and led her team down the stretch.”
The Yellow Jackets were led by junior Sydney Wallace, who scored a season-high 22 points against the Seminoles. Wallace’s 22 points were scored all in the first half as she shot 7-for-9 from the field and was 5-for-6 behind the three point line. This was the 10th time in her career that Wallace has scored at least 20 points. Wallace took a hard fall in the opening seconds of the second half, and was unable to play the remainder of the game.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Freshman Kaela Davis added 18 points against Florida State, making her just the third Georgia Tech freshman to score 500 points in one season. Davis currently has 512 points this year, putting her 28 points away from breaking the freshman record of 540 points in one season. Davis made three 3-pointers at Florida State during her 25th game scoring in double-figures. Davis also led the Jackets on the board with five rebounds.
With her 14 points against the Seminoles, senior Tyaunna Marshall moved into 21st in the ACC career record book with her 2,044 career points. She led the team in assists with five and steals with four. Senior Dawnn Maye also scored in double figures, recording 11 in her home state of Florida. Maye scored nine of her 11 total points in the second half.
This was the 14th time this season that the Yellow Jackets have scored at least 80 points in a game. The Jackets are averaging 80.6 points per game in 2013-14 which is the highest average of points for Tech team since the 1990-91 season when the Jackets averaged 84.3 points per game. The Jackets shot 51.7 percent from the field (30-for-58) and went 71.4 percent from behind the arc (10-for-14).
The Yellow Jackets used an explosive first half to take a 52-31 lead at halftime. The Jackets led by as much as 23 points in the first half and forced the Seminoles to turn the ball over 10 times in the first 20 minutes of play.
The Jackets ran to 11-4 lead in the opening minutes thanks two 3-pointers from Davis and Wallace. Davis scored 10 points in the first 8:15 of the game, helping the Jackets to a 15-10 advantage at the 13:59 mark. She scored 15 points of her 18 in the first half.
Wallace put together a 13-3 run on her own to help the Jackets to a 32-14 advantage with 9:14 on the clock. She finished the first half with 22 points and five 3-pointers, shooting 7-for-9. Wallace continued her shooting streak, hitting back-to-back threes with 2:56 to go until half to put the Jackets ahead, 45-26.
The Jackets used a tough defense to hold the Seminoles to just 31 points in the first half, heading in to the locker room up, 52-31.
The Seminoles began to fight back in the beginning of the second-half, but Tech strung together to six points to regain a 20 point lead at, 62-42.
Florida State then went on a 9-0 run to climb within 11 of the Jackets’ 62-51 lead. The two teams battled it out and the Seminoles came within seven points of Tech’s 70-63 lead with just 7:30 left on the clock.
In the winding minutes of the game, FSU would score six-straight points to pull within four of the Jackets – the closest they would get to Tech since the first half.
Maye would go 5-for-6 from the line in the final 49 seconds of the game to pull Tech ahead 86-78 and secure the Jackets’ victory. The Yellow Jackets never trailed the Seminoles the entire game, staying in the lead after Davis hit a 3-pointer 1:27 into the game.
The Yellow Jackets return home to wrap up the regular season on Sunday when they host Boston College at 2 p.m. at McCamish Pavilion. Georgia Tech’s four seniors, Shayla Bivins, Frida Fogdemark, Tyaunna Marshall and Dawnn Maye, and senior manager Hannah Gebresilassie, will be honored during a Senior Day ceremony, which will begin at 1:45 p.m.
–RamblinWreck.com–
