Love leads No. 11 Georgia Tech women past Clemson in OT
Feb 12, 2022, 9:47 PM | Updated: Feb 13, 2022, 11:52 am
ATLANTA (AP) — Eylia Love scored a career-high 26 points — offsetting a career-best 40 points by Clemson’s Delicia Washington — and No. 11 Georgia Tech survived an upset bid, defeating the Tigers 92-84 in overtime on Sunday.
Love sank 10 of 16 shots as the Yellow Jackets (19-6, 10-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) ended a two-game skid by beating the Tigers (9-17, 3-12) for the ninth straight time.
Sarah Bates had 15 points and Love scored 13 to guide Georgia Tech to a 40-32 lead at halftime.
Washington, who had 16 points in the first half, scored 12 points on 4-of-4 shooting with two 3-pointers in the third quarter and Daisha Bradford added nine points as Clemson battled back to take a 62-59 lead into the final period after falling behind 9-0 to begin the game.
Love opened the fourth quarter with a three-point play to pull Georgia Tech even, and after a basket by Washington, Lorela Cubaj’s three-point play gave the Yellow Jackets a 65-64 lead with 7:43 remaining. It remained a one-possession game the whole fourth quarter.
Lotta-Maj Lahtinen buried a jumper with 3 seconds left to put Georgia Tech on top 77-75, but Washington scored in the paint at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.
Georgia Tech never trailed in the extra period after Nerea Hermosa and Lahtinen had back-to-back layups to open the scoring.
Cubaj finished with 22 points and seven assists for the Yellow Jackets. Hermosa added 19 points and nine rebounds. Bates scored 17.
Washington did her damage on 16-of-23 shooting with three 3-pointers for Clemson. Bradford added 18 points.
The Clemson single-game scoring record is 45 set by Barbara Kennedy against Claflin in 1979. Kennedy owned nine of the Tigers’ top 10 scoring efforts until Washington cracked the list.
The Yellow Jackets have won 12 of the last 13 match-ups with Clemson to grab a 46-45 lead in the all-time series.
Georgia Tech will host No. 18 Notre Dame on Thursday.
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