#17 Georgia Tech WBB beats SMU 70-69 in final second

A bad game that went our way

McCAMISH PAVILION — By the skin of their teeth, #17 Georgia Tech women’s basketball escaped SMU 70-69 to move to 19-4 (7-4 ACC) on the season in their battle for a top four seed in the NCAA Tournament (Charlie Creme in his latest bracket has Tech as a #5 seed). The win is their first by a single possession since beating Mississippi State back in early December. SMU’s losing streak extends to eight.

“Thankful that we got away with that one,” said Tech head coach Nell Fortner. “We just didn’t play very well. We didn’t play very smart, just didn’t execute well. Didn’t push the ball like we normally do, but we won the game not playing our best basketball,” said Fortner.

Tech was uncustomarily shaky with possession, turning the ball over 13 times compared to five times in their previous game against Miami, including on an inbounds pass where Tonie Morgan just needed to get the ball in play with 0.6 seconds left to seal the win, but instead got hit with a five second violation.

“I’ll take full responsibility for that,” said Fortner. “I should have called timeout, so that’s my fault.”

Ultimately, it was a lot of Tech not being able to play on their own terms and establish control of the game. Their largest lead was only six points in the third quarter and it disappeared in a flash. They spent the entire fourth quarter down until Zoe Smith hit two free throws with :1.2 left, nearly giving it back when Morgan fouled SMU’s TK Pitt’s with :0.6 seconds left.

“I think that SMU came in here and played their basketball. We played at their pace. We didn’t dictate anything at all,” said Fortner.

To spell that, SMU pulled 17 offensive rebounds to Tech’s 11, including some critical ones in the fourth quarter when Tech switched to a zone defense as they were having serious trouble guarding Jessica Peterson. If SMU hadn’t gone cold and missed seven of their eight final field goals, they walk away with a win.

Kara Dunn finished as Tech’s leading scorer with 15 points, just slightly under her season average of 15.6. Tianna Thompson had a standout second quarter, scoring eight of her nine points in the game in a big spot where Tech outscored SMU 21-10.

In a perfect world, Tech wins this game cleanly with the speed and spacing they know they can get. Dani Carnegie, who after coming off injury has only had one truly solid game, again had plenty of good looks but only hit one three pointer, her only three point make in her last 21 attempts from deep over the last three games. A big part of Tech’s early season success was her first half offensive output but…

“For whatever reason, they’re just not falling for her right now,” said Fortner.

How it Happened

Tech’s offense didn’t look slow, but the attempts they went for in the first few minutes either were hurried or just weren’t executed well, starting with a missed Dunn three and a couple layup attempts that didn’t drop. Defensively Tech fell twice to late passes in the paint to give SMU open looks, but otherwise kept the ball in front of them well. Tech didn’t have a lead until Tonie Morgan hit a free throw to make it 6-5 and only scored again via four Kara Dunn points before the media break at 3:22 down 11-10.

After about a 10 minute delay to fix the shot clock, Donavia Hall landed a three to stretch SMU’s lead to two possessions before Kaysia Woods hit her second three of the quarter to leave the quarter at 18-13.

2Q (18-13 SMU)

Fortner put Tiannia Thompson in the starting five to start the quarter in Morgan’s place and made an immediate impact. After Wright hit a three, Tianna followed up with one of her own to make it 20-19 SMU before hitting back-to-back tough driving layups for a 25-21 GT lead, their biggest of the game thus far, prompting SMU to use a timeout to stop a run.

Ari Termis then landed two threes in short order to put Tech ahead five with 3:30 left in the quarter. Despite a consecutive turnovers, Tech’s defense kept the Mustangs multiple possessions away before Wright hit a lovely deke move to get an open floater to round out the quarter where somehow only Thompson, Termis, and Wright were Tech’s only scorers.

3Q (34-28 GT)

SMU came out swinging in the second half, hitting four of five shots early to tie at 36-36. Tech’s starters played cleaner baskeball compared to the first half, finding a more consistent offensive rhythm but kept getting matched by SMU. Buckets by Morgan and Zoe Smith gave Tech somewhat of a cushion up 43-38 halfway through the quarter before the Mustangs went on a 7-0 to temporarily take the lead at 47-46. Then, after 18 straight misses from deep over the last two plus games, Dani Carnegie finally got one to land only for SMU to hit a three point play seconds later and keep the lead at 50-49. Tied at 52-52, TK Pitts with the game clock running low managed to get to the free throw line with :2.9 left, getting SMU a late lead going into the 4th.

4Q (54-52 SMU)

A Morgan turnover and lack of perfect cohesion early prompted Nell Fortner to call Tech’s first timeout of the game at the 8:18 mark, which a minute later was followed by another Morgan turnover turning into SMU’s biggest lead of the night at 60-53. Morgan countered with her second three of the game to make it a four point game. Zoe Smith then got beat on a rebound, fouling a putback shot which TK Pitts converted to make it 63-56, a lead they extended on a couple minutes later when again Tech couldn’t get a critical rebound turning into an SMU three for a 66-58 lead with 4:50 left.

From there Tech put together three sound offensive possessions with Dunn hitting a reverse layup, Smith getting a putback off a Carnegie three point attempt, and Dunn getting to the line to make it 66-64 SMU with 3:15 left. Both squads then squandered double possession opportunities, SMU getting the better of it in transition to get a bucket before Dunn again got fouled, keeping it a two point SMU lead with under two minutes to go.

SMU’s next possession, even with calling a timeout before, ended in a shot clock violation. Wright hit a fantastic contested layup to tie it at 68-68 (should’ve been a foul call too) with :30.5 left. SMU tried to milk the whole clock, shooting with just over a couple seconds left, missing, and fouling Zoe Smith as she got the rebound. Tech being in the bonus got free throws with :1.2 left. Smith hit both to make it 70-68.

After SMU used a timeout to advance the ball, Morgan committed a foul with 0.6 left, sending Nya Robertson to the line. She missed the first free throw, but hit the second. Fortner called timeout after up 70-69, and even with that Morgan failed to inbound the ball before five seconds, turning it over without getting the ball in play. SMU did inbound the ball after but the shot was nowhere close, giving Tech a painstaking last second win.

Stats & Game Leaders

Game Leaders

Points: TK Pitts (SMU) – 19

Assists: Zanai Jones (SMU) – 5

Rebounds: Jessica Peterson (SMU) 15

3PM: Kaysia Woods (SMU) – 3

Tech is on the road for their next two games, their next coming Sunday at 12 p.m. at Boston College. If you’re looking to catch the Jackets before the end of the season, their final three home games are Feb 16 vs. Wake Forest, Feb 20 vs. NC State, and Feb 23 vs. Florida State.