ACC Women's Basketball Tournament
12th-Seeded Clemson Upsets the Yellow Jackets
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Friday, March 6, 2009
After winning seven straight games over Clemson, Georgia Tech may have been looking ahead to a rematch with No. 11 North Carolina.
The Tigers made them pay, pulling away in the second half to upset the Yellow Jackets, 81-69, yesterday in the opening round of the ACC women's basketball tournament in Greensboro, N.C.
Shaniqua Pauldo scored a career-high 23 points to lead five players in double figures for 12th-seeded Clemson (14-16), which will take on the fourth-seeded Tar Heels in today's quarterfinals.
"We felt like we had underachieved the last month of the season," Tigers Coach Cristy McKinney said after Clemson snapped a five-game losing streak. "But we looked at this as a new season.
"I just want my team to play with confidence again. When they play with confidence, they can do a lot of great things. Hopefully, this game gave them a lot of confidence."
Tasha Taylor added 12 points, and April Parker, Sthefany Thomas and Lele Hardy each had 10 for the Tigers, whose last win over Georgia Tech came on Jan. 18, 2006.
Alex Montgomery scored 17 points, Jacqua Williams had 15, Iasia Hemingway 13 and Brigitte Ardossi 10 for the fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets (21-9), who had won three straight -- including an 89-54 victory over the Tigers on Feb. 22 -- entering their tournament opener.
In fact, that loss was Clemson's worst margin of defeat this season. In that game, the Tigers shot just 32.2 percent and were outrebounded 48-33.
But Clemson turned the tables on the Yellow Jackets yesterday. The Tigers held Georgia Tech to 32.8 percent shooting, forced 20 turnovers (13 off steals) and outrebounded the Yellow Jackets 50-38.
"We haven't given up 50 rebounds in a long time," Georgia Tech Coach MaChelle Joseph said. "It was obvious to me that they got all the hustle points -- all the loose balls, and all those rebounds."
A big part of that was Pauldo, a 6-foot-3 freshman making her first start. She made 11 of 17 shots and pulled down seven rebounds.
