Cougars Fall to Yellow Jackets

Wednesday, December 20

John Kresse Arena

7:00 PM

College of Charleston

Georgia Tech

12/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball

By: CofCSports.com

The College of Charleston women's basketball team could not overcome hot shooting by Georgia Tech in the first half and fell to the Yellow Jackets, 82-50, in action in front of 471 fans tonight at the John Kresse Arena.

Charleston falls to 4-6 on the year, while Georgia Tech improves to 7-3.

The first half saw the Cougars keep the margin to within 10 points for the first 19 minutes of action, despite a poor shooting performance, and only trailed by eight at 20-12 at the 11:06 mark. Georgia Tech responded, though, with a 12-0 run over the next four minutes to take the 20-point 32-12 lead at 7:06 and was able to keep the gap in double digits for the rest of the half and went into the locker room with the 48-21 lead at intermission.

Charleston shot just 30.4 percent from the field in the first half, while Georgia Tech fired a blistering 54.5 percentage from the floor, including a five-for-11 effort from behind the three-point arc. The Cougars were held to just 10 rebounds in the first 20 minutes, including just four offensive boards. The Yellow Jackets pulled down 22 rebounds in the first stanza.

The Cougars improved their shooting performance in the second half, firing 37.5 percent from the field, compared to 42.9 for the Yellow Jackets. Although the second half score was closer, 34-29, Charleston was too far in the hole to recover and fell by 32 points, 82-50.

For the game the Cougars shot 34.5 percent from the field, while Georgia Tech shot 49.2. The Cougars were out-rebounded 44-30, while the turnovers were fairly even as the Cougars had the slight 15-12 edge. The Yellow Jackets capitalized on those turnovers, scoring 21 points of them, compared to just nine for CofC. Georgia Tech was nine-for-18 from the three-point line while the Cougars were just two-for-eight.

Charleston was led by Erika Smith and Nikki Williams, both of whom scored seven points apiece. Deidra Jones paced the Cougars with six rebounds, a career-high.

Janie Mitchell and Chioma Nnamaka both had 21 points to lead the Yellow Jackets. Mitchell posted a double-double with her team-leading 10 rebounds.

The Cougars are off for the holidays and resume action Dec. 29th as they host Southern Conference opponent Appalachian State. The game, originally scheduled for 2:00 p.m., has been moved to 1:00 p.m. The Yellow Jackets next host the Georgia Tech/Atlanta Marriott NW Holiday Invitational Dec. 29th and 30th. Georgia Tech plays Alcorn State the 29th at 1:00 p.m. in the first game.