MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament opened Sunday afternoon, it appeared that No. 5 seed Georgia Tech was primed to be an upset victim of No. 12 seed Stephen F. Austin. Trailing 34-17 at halftime, the Yellow Jackets rallied for a 54-52 overtime victory, securing the program’s first NCAA Tournament win in nearly a decade.
“In this NCAA Tournament, the first round game is always such a hard game to win,” said Georgia Tech head coach Nell Fortner. “I don’t care what your seed is, what your number is. It doesn’t matter. Everyone has come here with fresh legs and big dreams and goals and a hunger to win. I am so proud of our kids for how we fought back being 17 down.”
“It was really hard for us, said Georgia Tech senior forward Lorela Cubaj. “We had to pick up the tempo on defense because we were passive on defense. That was the game changer for us.”
Tuesday’s second round matchup between the Ramblin Wreck and West Virginia will tip at 5:30 p.m. at the University of Texas-San Antonio. The game will be televised by ESPNU.
The game features two of the nation’s top rebounders. WVU sophomore Esmery Martinez ranks 14th in the nation with 11.6 rebounds per contest. Cubaj is 12th at 11.7 boards per game.
“They’ll play man. They will press you and trap. They’ll play zone and they have a great post,” said WVU head coach Mike Carey. “They’ve got some shooters and athletes. And they have a great guard that will drive you and shoot the three. They have a lot of talent. So it will be a good matchup.”
Like the Mountaineers, Tech (16-8) has made their way with a short bench. Only seven players took the floor in their NCAA opener and four of five starters played at least 37 minutes.
Junior guard Lotta-Maj Lahtijen leads Georgia Tech in scoring at 14.5 points per contest.
The Mountaineers (22-6) defeated Lehigh, 77-53 Sunday evening in their opening round matchup. It was WVU’s first NCAA Tournament victory in four years. After playing three games in three days last weekend en route to the Big 12 Championship game, Carey thought his team would jump out to a fast start with fresh legs after a week off. Yet the Mountaineers needed a 10-0 run over the final 3:32 of the first half to take a 36-26 halftime lead.
“We were breathing hard. I don’t know,” Carey said. “You would think their legs would be fresh but our conditioning wasn’t good. We were struggling in the first quarter getting up and down the floor. It seemed like as the game went on, we did a better job getting up and down the floor.”
“We should have given the fact that coach did give us that time off,” said WVU senior guard Kysre Gondrezick. “We are about seven players deep right now. Everyone on this team is instrumental. Everyone’s role is just as important as the next player. Given the fact that we had a fresh start off of today’s game, I feel like that will benefit us moving forward in the tournament.”
Sunday’s win was WVU’s 11th NCAA Tournament victory. A win on Tuesday would secure the Mountaineers’ first trip to the Sweet 16 since 1992, when only 32 teams were in the field.
“You always play better in the second game. So I look for us to come out and have a great game against Georgia Tech,” Carey said.