STANFORD, Calif. — Ninth-seeded Georgia Tech could not get enough stops and could not get on a concerted run either, falling 77-58 to 8th-seeded Kansas in an NCAA Tournament first-round game Friday at Maples Pavilion.
“Our defense let us down tonight,” Georgia Tech Nell Fortner said. “It has been our calling card all year. We’ve been able to rely on it. Somewhere in the middle of the season, it got away from us. We couldn’t quite get it back. That’s where we got our energy and mojo from.”
The Yellow Jackets (21-11) got down 10-0 at the start, but recovered to lead 12-10, then 22-13 after one period as things were on the upswing. The Jayhawks (21-9) and Yellow Jackets went toe-to-toe the rest of first half as each team threw their best punch.
Kansas woke up in the second period after Tech went up 26-16 on a bucket by Nerea Hermosa, triggered by a steal by Digna Strautmane. A steal and a layin by Holly Kersgieter sliced Tech’s lead to 26-20. Kersgieter then nailed a three from the left corner for a 28-27 lead. Sarah Bates chimed in with a 3-pointer as Tech’s star center Lorela Cubaj rested. Ioanna Chatzileonti’s three knotted it at 31. Kersgieter’s 3-pointer from the top of the key put Kansas ahead 34-31 as the wild second period came to a close.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Fortner cited guard Lotta-Maj Lahtinen getting in foul trouble in the second quarter as one of the reasons for the Jayhawks’ comeback. “She’s off the floor for six or seven minutes in the second quarter and that was really costly,” Fortner said. “We don’t have anybody that really leads us the way she does. We had to go with some different people and it didn’t work out well for us.”
Three Jayhawks players scored in double figures. Center Taiyanna Jackson had 14 points and seven rebounds in 25 minutes. Kersgieter had 19 points, hitting 4-of-5 from 3-point distance.
Chatzileoni hurt the Yellow Jackets with 15 points, 10 rebounds.
“We were concerned about their quickness before the game because they like getting downhill,” Fortner said. “We were OK with it early on, but they ended up with 46 points in the paint. We weren’t tough enough in the paint. We can’t win giving up that many points. We normally allow teams to score in the 50s.”
Digna Strautmane had a tremendous game for the Yellow Jackets, totaling 18 points and grabbing six rebounds. Strautmane is in her first and last year at Georgia Tech. “I was trying to do the best I could,” she said. “We were fighting. Our defense wasn’t working for us. We didn’t show our best performance.”
“Diggy played an extremely good game,” said Fortner of Strautmane. “She was competing hard.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
It was also the final game for Lahtinen, who had seven points and four assists.
With under four minutes to play, Lahtinen collided with a defender and hit the hardwood in pain. Kansas scored on the other end while Cubaj was also down on Tech’s defensive end. When play stopped, Cubaj and Lahtinen went into the locker room for assistance. They both returned.
“I didn’t notice Lo go down,” Lahtinen said. “I was shooting a three and stepped on someone’s foot. At that point, I was just trying to win. It was a hustle moment. That was at the end of the game. We should have been better the 38 minutes before that.”
Cubaj was held in check, scoring eight points and grabbing 11 rebounds in her final game.
“These kids fought hard,” Fortner said. “They worked hard. They wanted to win and all that. We just didn’t have enough in the tank (tonight).”
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