After falling to No. 9 Virginia Tech for a third consecutive loss to end the regular season, Georgia Tech drew the No. 14 seed in the ACC Tournament. The Yellow Jackets will play No. 11 seed Boston College in the first round of the tournament Wednesday in Greensboro, N.C.
The Jackets tied with Virginia for 13th with a 4-14 league record but lost the tiebreaker to the Cavaliers by virtue of their loss in their lone head-to-head matchup. Tech finishing tied for 13th in the ACC is the lowest finish in team history, although it wasn’t possible to finish that low until the ACC expanded to 15 teams prior to the 2013-14 season. (The lowest finish in that span was 10th, in the 2016-17 season.)
By winning percentage, the Jackets’ 4-14 league record (22.2%) is their poorest since the 2005-06 season (2-12, 14.3%). With an overall mark of 13-16, the Jackets will have to play their way into the semifinals to avoid their first losing season since the 2005-06 season. The Jackets lost ACC defensive player of the year Lorela Cubaj and leading scorer Lotta-Maj Lahtinen off of last year’s NCAA Tournament team among several key players and have depended heavily upon freshmen Tonie Morgan and Kara Dunn this season. Even with the transfer additions of guards Cameron Swartz (first-team All-ACC at Boston College in 2022) and Bianca Jackson (Florida State’s leading scorer in the 2020-21 season), consistency has been elusive.
“This team has been so up and down all year,” coach Nell Fortner told media after Sunday’s game. “We have the ability to play with people in this league. We can complete and play with people. We just have to believe that we can win the game and finish it out. Sometimes I think our youth gets the best of us in that department.”
The Jackets had posted winning records in league play in each of Fortner’s first three seasons and reached the NCAA Tournament in 2021 and 2022. Sunday, the Jackets trailed nearly the entire game against the Hokies, shooting 21-for-55 (38.2%) from the field.
Virginia Tech center Elizabeth Kitley, the ACC’s fourth-leading scorer with 18.4 points per game, piled up 29 points on 13-for-20 shooting form the field along with 11 rebounds.
“That part’s disappointing,” Fortner said. “I thought we could match up with her pretty good, but she’s really, really good. She had the hot hand and we just didn’t have an answer for her.”
On her Senior Day, Swartz led the Jacket with 20 points on 8-for-18 shooting, including 4-for-9 from 3-point range.
In Greensboro, Tech’s game against Boston College will be the final game of the day Wednesday. The winner will go on to play No. 6 seed Miami on Thursday. Tech lost at Boston College 74-62 in the teams’ only meeting Dec. 18.
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