The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team received a bid to the Women’s NIT Monday night and drew a familiar opponent. The Yellow Jackets will play Mercer Thursday at McCamish Pavilion.
Tech has played the Bears 20 times in school history, most recently in the 2010-11 season. Tech has won 14 of the meetings, including each of the past seven.
“We are excited about the opportunity to play in the postseason,” coach MaChelle Joseph said in a statement. “Our seniors deserve to continue playing and this is a great experience for our 11 returners. We are playing really good basketball in March and look forward to our next matchup.”
Tech is 19-12, having won five of its last six. The Jackets’ last game was a loss to then-No. 7 Louisville in the quarterfinals of the ACC tournament. The Jackets finished the conference regular-season schedule at 8-8, earning them a tie for seventh place after being picked 11th in a preseason poll of both coaches and media. Tech was perhaps two wins from consideration for an NCAA tournament bid.
It was a down year for the ACC. Only Notre Dame, Louisville, Miami, Syracuse and Florida State received bids. In each of the past two seasons, the 15-team league had received eight bids. Duke had made the past 21 NCAA tournaments before getting shut out Monday.
The tournament will be a sendoff for seniors Aaliyah Whiteside, Roddreka Rogers and Irene Gari, a graduate transfer. Whiteside, a guard, was named first-team All-ACC, having led the league in scoring at 19.4 points per game. She also leads the Jackets with 7.2 rebounds per game – 10th in the ACC – and also has the team’s highest assist average at 2.7 per game.
Mercer tied for first in the Southern Conference with Chattanooga with a 12-2 record. The Bears were 24-8 overall.
Should Tech win, the Jackets would advance to play the Tulane-Alabama winner between Sunday and next Tuesday.
It is the second consecutive year that the Jackets will play in the WNIT. A year ago, Tech reached the second round of the 64-team tournament, beating Elon but then losing at Auburn.
Since earning invitations into the NCAA tournament for six consecutive seasons, 2007-2012, Tech has now made it once in the past four, including this season. It is Joseph’s ninth postseason appearance overall in 13 seasons.
Game time for Thursday's matchup will be announced Tuesday. Ticket information is available at the athletic department website.
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