Georgia Tech bows out of NCAA Tournament after rough loss to Richmond

“I think that our offense is just really hard to guard. So we know that anybody that we we’re gonna go against is gonna have trouble guarding us,” Doogan said. “We watched a lot of film. We kind of studied their tendencies and we kind of knew what would and wouldn’t be open and I think we did a really good job of exposing that. We were just balling on a different level today.”

Tonie Morgan had 12 points to lead the Jackets, which finished the season losing six of seven games. Tech’s Kara Dunn, Dani Carnegie and Kayla Blackshear combined for just 19 points on 7-for-31 shooting. The 49 points were the fewest Tech has scored in 19 NCAA Tournament games and the 25-point loss was its second-worst in its tourney history.

“(Richmond) came in here 0-4 (in program history) in the NCAA Tournament and (this season’s Tech team) came in here 0-0. They were hungry,” Tech coach Nell Fortner said. “And they played well, shot the ball well. I thought we had opportunities early and we just couldn’t hit shots.”

Tech couldn’t have dreamed a worst start to its tournament Friday, trailing 19-7 after one quarter of play. The Jackets went 5:27 without scoring during the opening period and started 2 of 12 from the field.

Richmond’s Doogan, whose birthday is Saturday, drained three 3s during the quarter, the third gave the Spiders a 17-7 lead and induced a sly grin from the junior forward as she turned to trot down to the other end of the court.

The second quarter didn’t provide much hope at the outset. Fortner had to call a timeout 3:13 in after the Spiders had built a 26-10 lead, thanks to four straight missed Tech shots and a turnover — Tech’s fourth of the game at that point.

Richmond led by as many as 20 in the second quarter, up 33-13 after Doogan hit her fourth 3 of the game. Tech began to come to life from there, going on a 10-0 run and holding the Spiders scoreless until Doogan ended the half with a buzzer-beating layup.

The Jackets went into the break down a modest 12 despite shooting 33% and turning the ball over six times.

Any momentum Tech may have mustered toward the end of the first half died a quick death in the third quarter. Richmond went back up 17 on Addie Budnik’s layup and then had a 45-30 lead on Budnik’s 3 behind a screen on the left wing.

“Sometimes you can’t control whether the ball goes in or not,” Dunn said. “But I felt like there were moments where we knew our shots weren’t going in and we were still focused on defense. At that point it was just too late and were too far in a hole.”

Richmond led by as many as 21 in the period and the wheels eventually came off when Morgan was called for a technical foul late in the period. The Jackets, down 53-34 ahead of the fourth quarter, shot 5-for-20 in the third quarter and missed nine of the 10 3s they took.

The Spiders led by as many as 26 in the final frame as Tech could do little to muster any sort of comeback.

“I could not believe how calm we all were,” Richmond coach Aaron Roussell said. “Honest to God, for me, I was just like, ‘Why are we so calm?’ It was really enjoyable this week working with our staff, putting this together. Really enjoyable with our kids, asking questions, really wanting to be a part of this. They were really locked-in and really wanted this.”

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Georgia Tech guard Kara Dunn dribbles against Richmond forward Maggie Doogan during the first half in the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, March 21, 2025, in Los Angeles. The Jackets lost 74-49. (AP Photo/Jessie Alcheh)