By Derek DeBurger
For senior guard Eylia Love, Thursday’s match against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets serves as a bit of reunion.
Tech is currently 10th place in the ACC; their only wins are against the bottom feeders of the conference. Most of the Yellow Jackets’ games against solid competition have been non-competitive, but recently they’ve taken some down to the wire.
Tech has probably missed Love’s length and athleticism — their defense is far worse than it has been in years past. Tech allows 65.9 points per game which ranks 219th in the country. The Yellow Jackets also rank 316th in blocks per game with 1.9, and 287th in steals per game with 6.4. Tech has little to no presence defensively, and if the Cards can put points on the board early things could snowball.
At a Power-Six level, Tech has comprised quite an unimpressive group of scorers. The Yellow Jackets score 68.8 points a game and are led by guard Kara Dunn with 16 points a game. Guard Tonie Morgan is close behind her contributing 15.2 points and 5.1 assists a game. Forward Kayla Blackshear and guard Rusne Augustinaite also score double-digits, but there is a major drop-off in production after those four.
The Yellow Jackets as a whole shoot 30.3% from three. The only player shooting above 40% is center Ariadna Termis, but due to her small sample size of minutes and attempts her 40.9% isn’t necessarily the most reliable. Combine the Yellow Jackets’ dependence on the inside game offensively with their inability to defend the interior, and the game plan for Louisville should be to attack them inside to draw fouls and wear them out. This could be a battle of attrition, and if that’s the case I like Louisville’s chances.
I expect Louisville to get a win on Thursday, but they cannot mess around. The Cards need to keep pace to try to secure a top-four seed in the ACC tournament. A loss to Georgia Tech would put that in jeopardy.
