Wake Forest Athletics
Women's Basketball Hosts Georgia Tech on Friday, Jan. 4
1/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Game #13
Fri., Jan. 4, 2002
Wake Forest (6-6, 0-2 ACC) vs. Georgia Tech (6-5, 0-2 ACC)
Joel Coliseum (14,665)/Winston-Salem, N.C.
Tipoff: 2:00 pm
Broadcast: Available on the internet at: WakeForestSports.com. Carter Blackburn calls the action with Roper Halverson providing color commentary.
Records: Wake Forest is 6-6 and searching for its first ACC victory of the 2001-02 campaign. Georgia Tech is 6-5 and also looking for its first ACC win. Both teams are riding two-game losing streaks.
The Series: Georgia Tech leads the overall series 24-18, although Wake owns a 14-6 advantage at home.
The Coaches: WFU head coach Charlene Curtis is 36-87 in her fifth season with the Deacons, and owns a 198-237 career mark in her 16th season as a head coach. Georgia Tech's Agnus Berenato is 254-244 in her 18th season as a head coach, and 194-189 in her 14th season at Georgia Tech.
Noteworthy: Wake Forest defeated the Yellow Jackets, 79-71, at home in its final victory of the season last year.
Up Next: ACC action continues as WFU travels down the road to Durham to take on the Duke Blue Devils on Sunday, Jan. 6 at 2:00 pm.
Women's Basketball Rings in 2002 Versus Ramblin' Wreck of Ga. Tech
After a one-day snow delay, the Wake Forest women's basketball team (6-6, 0-2 ACC) opens play in the new year with a home contest against ACC-rival Georgia Tech on Thursday, Jan. 3 at 7:00 pm.
Originally scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 3, the game was postponed for a day after the Georgia Tech team was snowed in at home in Atlanta.
The Demon Deacons are looking to halt a two-game losing streak and pick up their first ACC win of the season against the Yellow Jackets, who are in a similar predicament. Georgia Tech is 6-5 overall, has lost two straight and is also searching for its first conference win of the year. The Jackets have dropped ACC games against Florida State and Duke, while the Deacons have fallen to North Carolina and NC State.
The 2001-02 campaign marks the 31st season of women's basketball at Wake Forest University. The Demon Deacons' all-time record is 321-443.
Injury Update
* The team's leading scorer, sophomore forward Eafton Hill, has missed the last eight games with a broken bone in her right foot. She is expected to see action against Georgia Tech after she dressed for the NC State game but did not see any action.
* Freshman guard Meredith Bell is questionable after bruising her right knee during the NC State game last Sunday.
* Junior forward Heather Miller has been out of action since preseason with a stress fracture in her back. She will also be re-evaluated in the coming days.
Demon Deacon Details
Wake Forest returns 11 letterwinners and three starters from last year's squad which produced an 11-17 record, its best in four seasons. The team's top returning scorer a year ago, 6-0 forward Eafton Hill, returns for her sophomore campaign after earning ACC All-Freshman honors.
Although she is currently sidelined with a broken foot, Hill is currently tied as one of the team's leading scorer (12.5 ppg). A strong shot-blocker, Hill was averaging an ACC-high 2.0 blocks per game before not having enough games to qualify for the rankings.
The senior class consists of two point guards and two centers. LaChina Robinson, who stands 6-4, is the most experienced Deacon on the roster with 98 appearances and 79 career starts. She reached a milestone in the Deacs' win over Radford, posting her first double-double with 15 points and 20 rebounds. She leads the team and ranks among the leaders in the ACC in rebounding (7.3 rpg), and also has a team-high 16 blocked shots (1.33 bpg). Another 6-4 senior, LaTisha Pearson, has seen limited action in her career but had a career-best performance against UNC Asheville with seven points and eight rebounds. Val Klopfer, a 5-4 senior, is the team's most experienced point guard (2.4 apg last season), but classmate Adell Harris has presented a strong challenge for playing time at the point as well as the shooting guard position, currently averaging 3.8 points, 1.8 rebounds and a team-high 3.7 assists.
Junior Tiffani Listenbee has already stepped into a much larger role this season. A 6-1 forward, Listenbee was the team's Most Improved Player last season and already broke her career scoring record with 15 points in the season opener versus ASU. She set another career best with 10 rebounds at Valparaiso. Junior Johanna Bj?rklund is the tallest player on the team (6-5) and provides depth at center. Slowed in the early goings with an ankle sprain, Bjorklund saw a season-high nine minutes of action versus UNCA, scoring six points. A third junior, 5-10 forward Heather Miller, is sidelined in the early goings with a nagging back injury.
In addition to Hill, the sophomore class consists of three other players who saw significant action last year. Point guard Bianca Brown got early starting nod, although Harris has started the last five games. Shooting guard Tonia Brown is counted on heavily for point production, and has already delivered by breaking her career high three times this season. She is tied with Hill as team's leading scorer (12.5 ppg) with double figures in eight outings this season, including a 24-point performance at Western Michigan. Forward Tracy Alston, a 5-10, is a smothering defender and strong rebounder at the small forward position who got her first starting nod in place of Hill at Western Carolina. Alston had a career-best night against UConn, pulling down a game-high 10 rebounds and dishing five assists. She set a new career scoring high (10 points) at High Point.
This year's freshman class consists of 5-9 shooting guard Meredith Bell, 6-0 post player Erin Ferrell and 6-1 guard/forward Jennifer Johnson. All three have seen significant action already this season and are making an impact. Ferrell was the team's top scorer with a 16-point effort at Western Carolina. Johnson is contributing 5.4 points and 3.3 rebounds an outing, and scored a team-high 16 points at North Carolina. Bell, an ACC Rookie of the Week in December, is a strong shooter who has already knocked down a team-high 18 three pointers this season and is averaging 6.1 points per game.
Head Coach Charlene Curtis
Head coach Charlene Curtis (Radford '76) is in her fifth season at the helm of the Demon Deacon program and just two wins shy of reaching the 200 career victories plateau. Her career coaching record of 198-237 (36-87 at WFU) also includes stints at her alma mater, Radford, and Temple.
Curtis' head coaching career began at Radford, where she posted a 121-53 mark in six seasons and was twice named Big South Coach of the Year. She then spent four seasons at Temple, producing a 41-97 record and four Atlantic-10 All-Rookie players. Before coming to WFU, Curtis spent two seasons at the University of Connecticut, serving as an assistant coach under Geno Auriemma and helping guide the Huskies to two BIG EAST titles and an NCAA Final Four appearance.
Curtis' coaching career also includes stints as an assistant coach at Virginia (1981-83), Georgetown (1984) and USA Basketball (1989-92, '94).
As a player at Radford, Curtis was the school's first 1,000-point scorer and was inducted as a charter member of RU's Hall of Fame in 1995. She earned a master's degree from UVa in 1982.
Scouting the Ramblin' Wreck
Like Wake Forest, Georgia Tech is searching for its first conference victory of the season. Standing at 6-5 overall, the Yellow Jackets have fallen to Florida State (87-78) and in its most recent outing, Duke (76-60).
Wake and Tech have played just one common opponent so far this season, both defeating UNC Asheville. The Deacs defeated the Bulldogs by 30, 76-46, while the Jackets posted an 88-56 win over UNCA.
Other Tech victories include Long Island, Eastern Washington, Arkansas State, Fordham and Southern. Georgia Tech's first four victories occurred by an average of 36 points, but it's last two wins have been by two and three points apiece.
Four players are averaging double-figure scoring for the Jackets, led by senior Regina Tate with 15.0 points per game. Junior center Sonja Mallory is averaging 14.4 points and a team-best 8.0 rebounds. Junior Niesha Butler, who missed the first eight games of the year due to academic reasons, is averaging 12.0 points through three games, while senior Milli Martinez is scoring 10.5 points a contest.
Georgia Tech is one of the ACC's top rebounding teams, averaging nearly 10 boards more than its opponents (41.7 to 31.9). The Jackets also rank first in the league in offensive rebounds, averaging 18.0 a game.
The Series with Georgia Tech
Georgia Tech leads 24-18 over WFU in a series that began in the 1979-80 season ... the two teams have met every year since then ... the Deacons have enjoyed success at home against the Yellow Jackets, with a 14-6 lead in games played in Winston-Salem ... Wake's longest winning streak in the series is four games (1984-86), while Tech's longest such streak is six games (1996-98) ... the teams split last year's meetings, with each one winning its home game ... six of the last eight meetings have been decided by 11 points or less ... Charlene Curtis is 2-7 against the Jackets as Wake's head coach ... WFU's 79-71 victory over Georgia Tech in Winston-Salem last Jan. 25 turned out to be its final victory of the 2000-01 campaign.
Deacon-Yellow Jacket Connections
* Three players from Sweden are on the rosters of Wake Forest and Georgia Tech ... Wake's Johanna Bj?rklund and Georgia Tech's Jasmina Pacariz both hail from Stockholm, while Yellow Jacket Nina Barlin is from Katrineholm, Sweden.
* Wake Forest assistant coach Sharon Manning and Georgia Tech assistant Kisha Ford played together on the WNBA's Miami Sol team in 2000.
The Last Meeting with Georgia Tech ... Feb. 25, 2001
Georgia Tech avenged an earlier season loss to Wake Forest, as it defeated the Deacs 79-63 in the final game of the regular season for both teams.
Georgia Tech shot 47 percent from the field while limiting the Demon Deacons to 35 percent shooting. The Yellow Jackets outrebounded the Deacs, 44-34.
Georgia Tech turned up the intensity on defense in the second half. After holding a 36-29 halftime advantage, the Yellow Jackets pulled away from Wake Forest early in the second stanza. The Demon Deacons scored just four points in the first 8:35 of the second period and were held scoreless for the first five minutes after intermission as Tech opened the half on a 16-4 run.
Tech senior Jaime Kruppa led three Yellow Jackets with 16 points on Senior Day. Alex Stewart also contributed a career-high 16 points, six rebounds and four assists and Milli Martinez recorded 16 points, six rebounds and two steals.
Wake Forest's Olivia Dardy scored a career-high 27 points and tallied nine rebounds and three steals in the losing effort. Eafton Hill added 16 points and three steals and senior Kristen Shaffer added 11 points, five rebounds and six assists for the Demon Deacons.
Harris Dishing the Assists
Senior guard Adell Harris leads the team with 44 assists, 14 more than anyone else on the team. She also owns a team-best 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio (44-28), a mark which ranks seventh in the ACC. After bringing a career ratio of 0.92 into this season, Harris has improved her assist-to-turnover mark to a positive 1.02, a mark which ranks her eighth among Wake's all-time assist leaders. She also needs just 30 more assists to rank among the top 10 in that category as well.
Harris has led the team in assists in eight games this season, including the last six contests. Her seven assists against High Point was a season high for the Deacons so far this year.
Tonia Brown Stepping Up in Starting Role
Sophomore Tonia Brown has certainly made an impact in the first half of the 2001-02 campaign. After serving as a backup to senior starter Kristen Shaffer last season, Brown has stepped into the starting shooting guard position this year and is currently tied as the team's leading scorer with 12.5 points per game. She has been the team's top scorer in seven of 12 games this season and has posted eight double-figure games, including a career-best 24 points in the win over Western Michigan. Brown has also drained a team-high 18 three-pointers (tied with Meredith Bell). In fact, Brown led the Deacons last season with 20 total three-pointers, and is just two treys shy of passing that mark before reaching the midway point of this season.
Brown, who has natural point guard abilities as well, also ranks second on the team with an average of 2.5 assists per game. She's also stepped up her rebounding numbers, averaging 5.1 boards a game - a mark which currently ranks second on the team. She also ranks first on the team with 22 steals.
The SWAT Team
Wake Forest set a new single season record and ranked third in the ACC last season in the blocked shot category, averaging 3.71 rejections a game (104 total). Through nine games this year, the Deacons have blocked 49 total shots, an average of 4.1 a contest and a mark that ranks second in the league. In contrast, Wake's opponents have blocked 28 shots the entire season (2.3 bpg), with one-fourth of those coming in one game courtesy of top-ranked Connecticut.
Senior LaChina Robinson leads the Deacon "swat" team with 16 blocked shots so far this year. Her single-game career best of three rejections at High Point moved her into sixth place on Wake's all-time blocked shots chart, as she currently owns 68 career blocks. Despite missing the last four games, sophomore forward Eafton Hill leads the team in blocks per game (2.0). She already ranks eighth on the career list with 43.
Coming Up Next
Wake Forest is now well underway in its ACC schedule, as the Deacons travel down the road to Durham, N.C. to take on the Duke Blue Devils, ranked 10th (USA Today/ESPN)/11th (AP) on Sunday, Jan. 6. Game time is set for 2:00 p.m. at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
