5 things to know from Tech women’s WNIT win over Alabama

MaChelle Joseph's Jackets have won the four WNIT games by an average of 12.8 points per game.

Credit: William Howard

Credit: William Howard

MaChelle Joseph's Jackets have won the four WNIT games by an average of 12.8 points per game.

Georgia Tech’s postseason roll continued Sunday, as the women’s team won easily against Alabama to advance to the WNIT semifinals. The Yellow Jackets controlled the paint and the game, defeating the Crimson Tide 76-66 at McCamish Pavilion. It’s Tech’s deepest run into the WNIT in school history.

How the game was won

Tech took control of the game with a 21-5 run over the final six minutes of the second quarter to go into the half up 44-27. Forward Elo Edeferioka scored seven of the points, scoring on a variety of post moves. She finished with a team-high 16 points, one shy of her season high.

“Honestly, I think it was Elo (that triggered the run),” coach MaChelle Joseph said. “I think Elo making those shots and those moves gave us a lot of confidence, and it seemed like the other players stepped up and started making plays.”

Tech improved to 21-14. Alabama, which beat the Jackets 67-65 in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in December, ended its season at 22-14.

The Jackets shot 50 percent from the field (29-for-58), their second-best rate of the season, their highest against a power-conference opponent and well above their season rate of 39.8 percent.

The Jackets were 7-for-16 from 3-point range, including a 3-for-5 effort from guard Antonia Peresson.

“Everybody’s just trying to bring what they can to the table and that’s how a team wins,” Edeferioka said.

Buddy system

Edeferioka’s 16 were supplemented by center Zaire O’Neal’s 15 points. They were a combined 13-for-22 with 18 rebounds.

“We really felt like if we could keep Zaire out of foul trouble (she fouled out) and Elo out of foul trouble, that we could have an advantage on the inside, becuase we feel like those two can score and rebound with anybody,” Joseph said.

O’Neal has scored in double figures in 12 of her past 17 games.

Coming together

It’s the wrong postseason tournament for most to notice, but Joseph believes her team has come together. Four of the top eight are in their first season with the team (including Edeferioka, who is a transfer from Hofstra).

“I really feel like at the end of the year traditionally we’ve played better in February, but I really feel in this year in particular, I feel like we started to turn a corner around February 1,” Joseph said. “It seems like we got our momentum.”

Only two out of the 13-player roster will not be eligible to return next season.

“It’s a great confidence builder and booster going into next season,” Joseph said.

This is the first time that Tech has won four postseason games (NCAA, WNIT or its predecessor the NWIT) in a row. The Jackets won three in a row to win the NWIT in 1992.

Prepared by the ACC

The Jackets have won the four WNIT games by an average of 12.8 points per game, all by double digits (Jacksonville, UCF, Middle Tennessee State and Alabama). Alabama was down as many as 24 points in the fourth quarter before making a spirited, if moot, comeback by pressing with Joseph resting point guard Imani TIllford, who was playing with a hand injury, out of the game.

“One of the things I said to the team before the game was the ACC prepared us for this,” Joseph said. “There’s no way that Alabama can throw anything at us that we didn’t see in the ACC.”

The conference placed seven teams in the NCAA Tournament and all advanced at least one round. Only the SEC had more with eight.

What’s next

Tech’s next game will be against Washington State on Wednesday at McCamish at 7 p.m. The Cougars beat Iowa Sunday to make the semifinals. Washington State is 16-19 and lost six of its last eight going into the WNIT. The WNIT gives automatic bids to the highest-placing team in each conference that doesn’t receive an NCAA bid, regardless of record.

Washington State tied seventh in the Pac-12; the six teams ahead of it (as well as the team that tied the Cougars) received NCAA bids.

On the other side of the semifinals bracket: Michigan and Villanova, to play Wednesday in Ann Arbor, Mich. The winners play Saturday at the campus of one of the teams. Michigan gave Tech one of its worst losses in Joseph’s tenure in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge in December, a 92-52 thrashing.

“The next game is the only thing we’re focused on,” Joseph said.

Edeferioka was less circumspect.

“I so believe we can win this,” she said.