The expectation-surpassing season for Georgia Tech’s women’s basketball team has been rewarded with honors from the ACC.
Coach Nell Fortner was named the ACC’s coach of the year by media, forward Lorela Cubaj was named the defensive co-player of the year and guard Lotta Maj-Lahtinen was named the league’s most improved player, the ACC announced Tuesday. (Only the coaches vote for defensive and most improved players of the year.)
The honors arrive three days before Tech is to play in the conference tournament as the No. 3 seed, the highest position that the Yellow Jackets have earned in team history. It’s the first time a coach or players from Tech have earned those awards.
Fortner, in her second season at Tech, led the Jackets to a 12-6 record in the ACC, good for third place outright, the team’s highest-ever finish. The Jackets had been picked to finish ninth in the league by media and fifth by coaches. (N.C. State’s Wes Moore was named coach of the year in the coaches vote.)
Cubaj, from Italy, leads the ACC in rebounding (11.5 per game) and ranks eighth in blocked shots and ninth in steals. In conference games, Tech leads the ACC in scoring defense and is ninth in defensive field-goal percentage. Cubaj, a senior, shared the defensive player-of-the-year honors with Kamilla Cardoso of Syracuse.
Cubaj, one of two players in the league who is averaging a double-double (11.7 points per game), also earned a spot on the 10-member All-ACC first team by vote of both coaches and media, as well as the coaches’ all-defensive team. Tech last had a first-team selection in 2016 and an all-defensive team member in 2014.
Lahtinen’s scoring average has increased from 9.3 points per game last season to 14.6 this season, which leads the team and is 12th in the ACC. She went for a career-high 30 points against N.C. State on Dec. 31, making her one of only five ACC players to hit that threshold this season. A junior, Lahtinen also has handed out 3.5 assists per game, up from 2.6 last season.
Lahtinen, from Finland, joined Cubaj on the media first team and was on the second team by vote of the coaches.
At the ACC tournament in Greensboro, N.C., Tech will play the winner of a second-round game between No. 6 seed Notre Dame and No. 11 seed Clemson on Friday. The Jackets are expected to receive an NCAA tournament invite, which would be their first since 2014.
