Georgia’s back in the Sweet Sixteen.
The No. 4 seed Lady Bulldogs (27-6) defeated fifth-seeded Iowa State 65-60 late Monday night in the Spokane, Wash., regional. The win gets Georgia to the third round of the NCAA tournament – better known as the Sweet Sixteen – for the eighth time in the last 11 years and 20th time since the women’s tournament began 32 years ago.
Georgia (27-6) will remain in the Spokane Regional, and will meet the winner of Tuesday night’s second round match-up between top-seeded Stanford and No. 8 Michigan.
The Lady Dogs led Iowa State by as many as 14 points in the second half, only to fall behind by four after the Cyclones went on a 16-1 run late in the game. But Georgia got two quick 3-point shots to reclaim the lead, a nifty reverse lay-up from Anne Marie Armstrong inside the final minute and then held on from the line.
“You know, we didn’t get as much as we would like to have gotten out of ourselves offensively or out of our sets,” Georgia coach Andy Landers said. “But our players really did a nice job of making plays throughout the game, and particularly at the end of the game when we had lost the lead. But it was the kind of game that we thought it would be.”
Georgia was led by freshman guard Shacobia Barbee with a career-high 20 points and Armstrong added 13 points. Senior guard Jasmine James played a near-perfect game with 9 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and zero turnovers. The Bulldogs had 17 assists in the game with only five turnovers as a team.
But the difference in the game was 3-point shooting. The Bulldogs entered the tournament shooting 27 percent from behind the arc but made a season-high 12 on 30 attempts (40 percent) on Monday.
Iowa State (24-9) got 23 points from Anna Prins and 14 points and 17 rebounds from Chelsea Poppens.
