In the milestone 50th anniversary of women’s basketball here at Tech, head coach Nell Fortner’s Jackets finished the season with a first-round exit in the NCAA tournament. Despite the disappointing blowout loss against the number eight seeded Richmond Spiders 74-49, this loss does not paint an adequate picture of the season where the Jackets finished with a record of 22-11, their best record percentage-wise since 2011.
Some of the many accolades included the best opening start in history (15-0), along with multiple individual ACC honors among Tech’s stellar guards. Freshman guard Dani Carnegie earned a spot on the ACC all-freshman team along with winning the ACC Sixth Player of the Year award, junior guard Kara Dunn notched a first-team All-ACC selection, and junior guard Tonie Morgan received second-team honors. Carnegie became the third player in Tech history to win the annual Sixth Player of the Year award.
Heading into this season, many Jacket fans were excited about the development of the young core from Dunn, Morgan and company. Combined with multiple recruits inside the ESPN Top 100, many knew that this year would be better than the previous. With that, no one would have been able to predict the hot streak the team would start on. Tech started the season by winning their first 15 games including the annual Clean-Old Fashioned Hate matchup, defeating ranked No. 21 Oregon in Hawaii and aiding the ACC in defeating Mississippi State in the SEC/ACC Challenge. Following a win against the Mercer Bears on Dec. 8, the Jackets woke up the next morning with fantastic news: they were ranked.
Just being ranked was not enough for the Jackets. They defeated ranked ACC foe, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and Nebraska over Winter Break, and by the time students returned for class in the Spring, Tech was ranked No. 13 in the country. This ranking was just two spots away from the highest ranking in the history of the AP Poll for Tech, having achieved No. 11 in 2022.
Just when it looked like Tech would continue to roll off win after win, hardship struck for the team. Carnegie, who had been a key scorer for Fortner’s squad, injured her leg in the home game against Virginia Tech, and despite a game-tying buzzer-beater three from sophomore guard Rusne Augustinaite, Tech lost their first game of the season. This crucial injury along with a difficult schedule put lots of weight on the team to step up and take on the extra load. Despite good efforts against top-ranked teams such as Duke and Notre Dame, the one loss led to the Jackets losing three of their next five.
Even with this tough stretch of games, the Jackets remained resilient and knocked off four of their next five ACC opponents. One of these wins included a nailbiter affair against SMU in the Thrillerdome where fifth-year Zoesha Smith hit a pair of game-winning throws to seal the game.
On Senior Day, Tech honored forward Kayla Blackshear and Smith along with their graduating team managers before a hard-fought battle with the Florida State Seminoles. Even with the Seminoles missing their star player Ta’Niya Latson, Tech came up just short of a comeback led by freshman Tianna Thompson who scored a career-high. Then, Tech ended the season on the California coast and dropped consecutive matchups to Stanford and Cal.
Even with a disappointing end to the season, the ACC tournament was a fresh start for a team who knew they were a top dog. Tech avenged their loss against VT by beating them in the second round by a score of 72-57. Following the win, Tech drew the NC State Wolfpack, the number one seed in the whole tournament. While the Jackets took the Wolfpack down to the final whistle, a Jackets shooting foul was called in the closing seconds causing Tech to fall by one point in a heartbreaking loss.
On Selection Sunday, it was announced the Jackets would travel to Los Angeles to take on the Richmond Spiders from the Atlantic Ten Conference. On Friday, the game tipped off, and from quarter one to quarter four it was all Spiders. Star player Maggie Doogan scored 30 points and had 15 rebounds and no Tech player scored over 12.
Despite this disappointing way to go out, the season was still a tremendous success. It will now be up to the coaching staff to ensure that the development from 2023 to 2024 occurs again this Summer; then Tech will be back on the national radar next year. It will be important for the Jackets to target a couple of forwards in the portal to pair with Tech’s existing stellar guard play. Next year will be an exciting year to be a Tech Women’s Basketball fan!
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