The Georgia Tech women’s basketball team will begin the ACC tournament in the highest slot in team history. The Yellow Jackets were officially assigned the tournament’s third seed on Sunday after earning third place in the league with a 12-6 record.
The highest seed Tech had previously earned was the No. 4 seed, most recently in the 2012 tournament when the Jackets tied for third in the regular season but were given the fourth seed on a tiebreaker. Prior to this season, coach Nell Fortner’s second with the team, the Jackets had never finished third outright.
Tech earned a double-bye in the 13-team tournament, meaning that the Jackets will sit out the event’s first two rounds. They’ll face the winner of the second-round matchup between No. 6 seed Notre Dame and No. 11 seed Clemson in a Friday quarterfinal in Greensboro, N.C. Tech split with the Irish and swept the Tigers.
Prior to the season, Tech was picked to finish ninth in the conference by media and fifth by coaches. Fortner is a candidate to be named the league’s coach of the year this week.
Since the 2012 season, the highest that the Jackets had finished in the ACC was seventh. They were 10-8 last season, Fortner’s first season, good for seventh.
“A third-place finish in the ACC is something to really be proud of,” Fortner told media in a videoconference following the team’s 65-60 win over Pitt on Saturday at McCamish Pavilion.
At 14-7 overall, the Jackets are also in position to earn their first NCAA tournament bid since 2014. After Saturday’s games, Tech was ranked No. 28 in the NCAA’s NET rankings.
The Jackets have multiple candidates for All-ACC awards, starting with senior forward Lorela Cubaj, who is the league’s leading rebounder (11.5 per game) and is eighth in blocked shots (1.4 per game). Junior guard Lotta-Maj Lahtinen is 12th in scoring (14.6 points per game), 14th in field-goal percentage (42.2%), 12th in assists (3.5 per game) and second in steals (1.9 per game). Senior guard Kierra Fletcher is 24th in scoring (12.6 points per game), eighth in free-throw percentage (82.1%), 10th in assists (3.7 per game) and second in assist/turnover ratio (2.4).
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