Georgia Lady Dawgs Beat Tech

The Georgia Lady Dawgs got back on track in a win over Georgia Tech thanks to their senior leadership. 

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After a disappointing mid-week trip to East Lansing, Michigan, the Georgia women’s basketball team (2-1) found their form by beating in-state rival Georgia Tech (3-1) 78-66 Sunday.

Senior forward Merritt Hempe led all scorers with 22 points and finished off her double-double with 10 rebounds. Guards Tiaria Griffin and Majorie Butler, also seniors, totaled 21 and 18 points respectively.

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Butler seemed to have found her confidence versus the Yellow Jackets after failing to score in the team’s first two games. Her 18 points was a career-high for one of the upperclassman leaders.

Trailing 7-5 early in the first quarter, Griffin connected on a layup followed by a made jumper by Hempe to put the Dawgs up 9-7 before the first TV timeout. From then on the team never trailed.

With the score tied at 14, the team went on a 21-5 run to push their lead to 35-19. Throughout the rest of the game they kept their lead at double-digits and posting their biggest lead of the game at 21 points in the third quarter.

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While only having nine points, senior Shacobia Barbee racked up an impressive 13 rebounds and four assists at her guard position.

All five starters played at least 32 minutes, and the team only had seven total players enter the game including the four seniors, sophomores Haley Clark (seven minutes) and Mackenzie Engram (32 minutes), and freshman Amber Skidgel (14 minutes). If this strategy is a sign of things to come then the team will need to rely heavily on the health of their starters.

The team will look to go to 3-1 Tuesday night as they host Georgia Southern at Stegeman Coliseum at 7:00 PM EST.