Georgia Tech's Second Half Too Much
12/9/2007 5:28:00 AM | Women's Basketball
ATLANTA ? Senior guard Shawnda Atwood paced Georgia Southern with 10 points, but Georgia Tech ran away with a 44-point second half to claim a 78-50, Yellow Jackets win, Sunday afternoon (Dec. 9), at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.
Georgia Southern falls to 3-6 overall with the loss, while Georgia Tech improves its record to 7-1 on the season.
Atwood (Pensacola, Fla.) led GSU with 10 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the field. She was followed by Chequilla Jessie (Sanford, Fla.) with nine points and four rebounds, while Carolyn Whitney (Duluth,Ga.) dished out a game-high six assists.
Four Yellow Jackets scored in double-figures, including Chioma Nnamaka with a game-high 20 points on 8-of-16 shooting.
GeorgiaSouthern opened up the game with its first nine points coming from three-point land. Tiffany Brown (Waxhaw, N.C.), Jessica Geiger (Stone Mountain,Ga.) and Whitney each chipped in with the three-ball. The momentum changed several times in the first half with three ties and six lead-changes.
GeorgiaSouthern’s largest lead came at the 14:29 mark after Geiger capped an 8-1 run by putting the Lady Eagles up 14-9.
“I thought we played well the first 10 to 13 minutes of the first half,” said head coach Rusty Cram. “We felt like we were executing the game plan very well and holding them at bay. I think we really took them by surprise and our kids were really focused.”
The Yellow Jackets regained the lead, 15-14, with 12:48 on the clock, and although GSU knotted the score at 17 with 9:18 remaining in the first half, the Lady Eagles couldn’t regain the lead for the remainder of the contest.
Georgia Tech led 34-23 at the break, its largest lead of the half, and was paced by Nnamaka Chioma with 13 points. Brown led the Lady Eagles with eight points on 3-of-9 shooting, including a pair of triples. GSU shot 8-of-23 (34.8%) from the field compared to GT’s 14-of-34 (41.2%).
In second-half action,GeorgiaSouthern was able to cut the lead down to just eight points after a pair of free throws by Whitney. But turnovers continued to plague the Lady Eagles while Georgia Tech improved their second half shooting to 55.6 percent (15-of-27) from the field and the Yellow Jackets slowly produced a 31-point lead before the final buzzer sounded. GT outscored GSU 44-27 in the second stanza.
AlthoughGeorgiaSouthern turned the ball over 23 times, the Lady Eagles defense forced 20 Georgia Tech mishaps and converted them into 11 points. But GT scored 16 points off of GSU’s blunders.
“I feel like they didn’t stop our offense,” said Cram. “We stopped ourselves by missing shots and turning the ball over, and they were unforced turnovers, which is a big difference. I didn’t feel like their defense stopped us.”
The Yellow Jackets claimed a 47-30 advantage in the rebounds category and scored 32 points in the paint, compared to GSU’s 14 points.
“We’ve had the best week of practice all year,” said Cram. “This was a chance for us to go out there and line it up and play hard and smart. We’ve got to get longer minutes of our focus, because that’s where we let down. But as far as our intensity goes, we were proud of them for the way they worked hard.”
GeorgiaSouthern finished the game shooting 18-of-53 (34.0%) from the field, while Georgia Tech made 29-of-61 (47.5%) field goal attempts.
GeorgiaSouthern will return home to Hanner Fieldhouse to host its second Southern Conference game of the season, entertaining Appalachian State, Sunday, December 16 at 3 p.m.
