Wake Forest University
*Georgia Tech
Demon Deacons Sting Jackets At Buzzer
2/29/2004 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 29, 2004
Final Stats?|? Quotes?|? Notes
WINSTON-SALEM - Wake Forest's Cotelia Bond-Young connected on a jumper as time expired leading the Demon Deacons to a 63-61 victory over Georgia Tech Sunday afternoon at Joel Coliseum in the regular season finale.
With the clock running under 10 seconds, Liz Strunk stepped out and set a screen. Bond-Young cut to the left and pulled up from 18-feet. The shot bounced once off the front of the rim then bounced once off the back of the rim before falling through as the final horn sounded.
The Deacs finished 4-12 in league play and are 11-16 overall, while the Yellow Jackets fall to 5-11 in the ACC and 14-14 overall. Sunday's win propelled Wake Forest to its first regular season sweep of Georgia Tech since the 1989-90 season.
Wake Forest returns to action on Friday in the opening game of the 2004 ACC Tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum. The ninth-seeded Demon Deacons will face eighth seeded Georgia Tech at 11 a.m. The game will be televised on Fox Sports South as part of the ACC Regional Sports Network.
With the score tied at 61 and less than 20 seconds remaining, it appeared as if the Yellow Jackets would have a chance to take the final shot. But Strunk drew a charge on Georgia Tech's Fallon Stokes, giving the Deacs the ball and setting up Bond-Young's heroics.
Wake's Erin Ferrell led all scorers with 17 points, while Strunk and Bond-Young added 12 each. Stokes led the way for the Yellow Jackets, scoring 16 points to go along with eight rebounds.
The Deacs led by two points at halftime, but the two teams battled back-and-forth throughout most of the second half. Consecutive baskets by Strunk and Bianca Brown at the eight-minute mark gave Wake Forest a five-point cushion, 54-49 - its largest lead of the game.
The Yellow Jackets rallied for a 59-58 advantage thanks to a lay-up by Kasha Terry with less than three minutes remaining, but the Deacs' Tonia Brown answered by knocking down her only three-pointer of the game to put Wake Forest back ahead by two.
With 53 seconds remaining, Georgia Tech's Jessica Williams slashed through the lane and hit a lay-up, while being fouled by Strunk. But Williams was unable to connect on the free-throw and finish the three-point play, leaving the game tied at 61.
The Demon Deacons struggled out of the gate. Georgia Tech jumped out to a 4-0 lead and pushed the lead to as many as eight points on two occasions. The Yellow Jackets led, 13-5, and 16-8, but both times the Deacs answered with 3-point field goals.
Trailing 20-15, the Demon Deacons grabbed its first lead of the half with six consecutive points, four of which on a Jennifer Johnson four-point play. Strunk gave Wake Forest the lead, 21-20, with a driving lay-up at the 5:23 mark of the first-half.
Georgia Tech regained the advantage with four straight points, 24-21, but a jumper from Bianca Brown and 3-pointer from Ferrell brought the Deacs even, 26-26. After Kasha Terry put the Yellow Jackets up two points, 28-26, with 1:05 to go before halftime, Strunk tied the game at 28 then gave the Demon Deacons the lead with a put-back jumper as time expired in the opening 20 minutes.
The halftime lead was the Demon Deacons first lead at intermission in the past six games. Wake Forest shot just 37.9% (11-for-29) from the field in the first-half, but knocked down 5-for-10 from 3-point territory. The Yellow Jackets also struggled from the floor, shooting 35.1% (13-for-37), but took advantage of a 16-6 advantage on points in the paint and 12-2 on second-chance points.
