Fueled by a late fourth-quarter run, ninth-seeded Georgia Tech fended off eighth-seeded Virginia Tech and advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals of the ACC tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina.
The victory sends Georgia Tech (22-9) into a matchup with top-seeded North Carolina State (24-5) at 1:30 p.m. Friday. The Yellow Jackets dropped an 83-68 decision when the teams met in Atlanta on Feb. 20, the first of four straight losses to close out the regular season for Georgia Tech.
On Thursday, Tonie Morgan led three Georgia Tech players in double figures with 19 points. The 17-0 fourth-quarter run came after the Jackets led by just two points.
“The 17-0 run, we just knew what we had and who we had on the court as a whole. We knew what type of players we are. We just competed,” Georgia Tech freshman guard Dani Carnegie said. “We knew we had to go to 0-0 at the end of the game and we just competed and tried everything to win because we knew where we want to be and where we want to go at, and we did everything to be there.”
Kara Dunn added 16 points and Carnegie scored 15 for Georgia Tech. Morgan, Dunn and Kayla Blackshear each grabbed nine rebounds
Virginia Tech trailed just 50-48 with 8 1/2 minutes remaining but went scoreless for the next five-plus minutes.
The Jackets shot nearly 63% in the fourth quarter – including 4-for-7 from 3-point range. Georgia Tech avenged a 105-94 double-overtime loss to the Hokies in Atlanta on Jan. 9.
“Really, really proud of the defensive effort tonight by our players,” Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner said. “Boy, they just bore down really, really hard on the defensive end, and that was something that was just incredibly important for us to get this win, especially being four in the hole and on the losing side of the last four games.
“We really got off to a good start with that. Just winning that first quarter 14-13 was incredibly important for us because he last two first quarters of the games we lost at Cal and at Stanford, we gave up 14 points a quarter, so that was a big hole to dig out of. So super proud of the defensive effort tonight.”
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