The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jackets will be seeded No. 6 in ACC Tournament

Tech to play winner of Wake Forest vs. Virginia Thursday.

- By Ken Sugiura ken.sugiura@ajc.com

Georgia Tech earned the No. 6 seed in the ACC Tournament and will begin play with a second-round game Thursday in Greensboro, N.C. The Yellow Jackets finished regular-season play in sixth place with a 64-56 win at Wake Forest on Sunday, stopping a three-game losing streak that included two overtime defeats.

Tech goes into the postseason 20-9 overall and 11-7 in the conference. The Jackets will play the winner of the Wake Forest-virginia game, which will be played Wednesday. Tech swept the No. 11 seed Demon Deacons and won its only game against the No. 14 seed Cavaliers.

Should the Jackets win Thursday, they would play third-seeded Notre Dame on Friday. Tech fell at home to Notre Dame in overtime in the teams’ only meeting of the season.

Tech can use the tournament to regain momentum going into the NCAA Tour- nament following a 2-5 finish in the regular season. The Jackets neverthele­ss achieved their 14th 20-win season in team history and the second with coach Nell Fortner, and will make backto-back NCAA appearance­s for the first time since playing in six consecutiv­e tournament­s from 2007-12.

Tech forward Lorela Cubaj finished the regular season as the ACC’S leading rebounder for the second year in a row, with 11.5 rebounds per game. She is also second in assists (4.41 per game), seventh in blocked shots (1.31 per game), first in assist-turnover ratio (2.1) and first in defensive rebounds (9.4 per game).

She figures to be a strong candidate for ACC defensive player of the year (she was co-defensive player of the year last year) and repeat as an ALL-ACC first-team selection.

Against Wake Forest, she racked up 18 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists, becoming the first ACC player to have at least 15 points, 15 rebounds and five assists in a game since 2015.

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