Nov. 27, 2012
Georgia Tech (3-2) will wrap up its three-game road trip with the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge when the Yellow Jackets travel to West Lafayette, Ind., for a matchup with the Purdue Boilermakers (5-1), Wednesday, Nov. 28, at Mackey Arena.
Tech split decisions with Syracuse and UW-Milwaukee in the San Juan Shootout in San Juan, Puerto Rico, over the Thanksgiving holiday. Purdue defeated Marist and Wake Forest before falling to UConn in the Paradise Jam championship game in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
The game against the Boilermakers begins a difficult three-game stretch in which Tech will take on three teams with a combined record of 16-1 and ranked in the Associated Press’ top 15. Purdue enters Wednesday’s game with a 5-1 record and ranked No. 14 in the latest AP poll. Tech will follow that with a home game against Georgia, currently 7-0 and ranked No. 8 before traveling to Durham, N.C., for its ACC opener against Duke, which sports a 4-0 record and No. 4 ranking.
Junior Dawnn Maye led the Yellow Jackets in San Juan with 21.5 points per game, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 steals and 2.0 assists. Senior Jasmine Blain tallied her first career double-double with career-highs of 13 points and 15 rebounds against Syracuse in Tech’s first game in San Juan.
PICK POCKETS
Through games of Nov. 26, Georgia Tech ranks second in the ACC in steals and ninth in the NCAA with 15.2 steals per game. Tech has tallied no fewer than 10 steals in a game this year. Against Marquette, the Jackets recorded 27 steals and tied the school record for steals in a game.
Junior Dawnn Maye is Georgia Tech’s leading thief, with 25 steals (5.0 per game). She leads the ACC in steals by 1.7 per game and ranks third in the NCAA in steals per game.
In 2009, Georgia Tech led the NCAA in steals per game with 13.6 and Jacqua Williams was sixth nationally with 3.4 steals per game.
UP TO THE CHALLENGE
Georgia Tech is a perfect 5-0 in ACC/Big Ten Challenge games and is only one of two schools in either league unblemished in Challenge games (Maryland is the other). Purdue is 0-5 in ACC/Big Ten Challenges.
Last year, Tech defeated Nebraska 73-57 in last year’s Challenge at the Arena at Gwinnett Center in Duluth, Ga., while the Boilermakers fell 64-53 at Duke.
AGAINST PURDUE
Georgia Tech has faced Purdue once previously, a 76-63 loss in the second round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament in Minneapolis, Minn.
This will be MaChelle Joseph’s first time as a head coach leading her team against her alma mater in West Lafayette. Joseph was an assistant on Tech’s 2003 NCAA Tournament team which lost a first round game, 61-59, to Virginia Tech at Purdue.
AGAINST THE BIG TEN
Georgia Tech is 11-4 all-time against teams from the Big Ten with five of those wins coming in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. As head coach, Joseph is 8-2 against Big Ten teams.
HEADING HOME
Wednesday’s game at Purdue will be a homecoming for Georgia Tech head coach MaChelle Joseph, who played for the Boilermakers from 1989-92. Joseph led Purdue to four NCAA Tournament appearances, including the school’s first in 1989 and to the Sweet 16 in 1990 and 1992.
Joseph graduated as Purdue and the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer with 2,405 points. She is still Purdue’s all-time leading scorer and ranks fourth on the Big Ten chart. Joseph also finished her time at Purdue as the school’s all-time leader in assists with 628 and was the only player in conference history to rank in the top-10 in both points and assists. She still holds the Purdue record for career assists and ranks seventh in the Big Ten.
Joseph earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year and second team all-conference in 1989. She was a first team all-conference selection in 1990, 1991 and 1992. During her senior season, she was named the Big Ten Player of the Year, a KODAK All-American, a U.S. Basketball Writers Association first team All-American and the Women’s Basketball News’ College Player of the Year.
In 2010, Joseph was inducted into the Purdue Intercollegiate Hall of Fame and was named one of Purdue’s “Legends of Mackey” in 2012.
