Duke defeated Boston College in a close 70-65 game Tuesday evening to become Georgia’s opponent in the NCAA regional semifinals in Chattanooga.

The Duke-Georgia game will tip off at approximately 2:20 on Saturday afternoon. LSU and Liberty will play at noon in the other regional semifinal, and Georgia-Duke will start 20 minutes or so after that first game ends. ESPN will televise both games.

Duke features ACC Player of the Year and All-American guard Monique Currie and a solid supporting cast inside and outside. They spent much of the season in the Top 5. They have a 30-4 record with three of those losses coming to #1-seed North Carolina. A November loss to Notre Dame is the only other blemish on their record.

Georgia will face Duke in Saturday’s regional semifinal in Chattanooga. The Blue Devils held off a tough Boston College team 70-65 Tuesday night to advance. All-American Monique Currie had 21 points, and center Alison Bales added 16 and was clutch down the stretch. The game time for Duke-Georgia has not been set - it will be either noon or ~2:15 p.m. on Saturday.

Duke has ended Georgia’s season twice in recent years, so it’s time to settle the score. In 1999, Georgia advanced to their most recent Final Four before falling to Duke and All-American center Michelle Van Gorp 69-81. In 2003, the two teams met again in the regional semifinals. Duke, the #1 seed, was heavily favored, but Georgia took them to the wire before falling 63-66. Ebony Felder’s courageous performance in that 2003 Duke game nearly gave the Lady Dogs the edge they needed for a huge upset. The “Miracle Workers” team of 2002-2003 also played that Duke game without starting guard Sherill Baker who injured her shoulder in the previous game against Rutgers.

In the other half of the Chattanooga regional, LSU advanced as expected, but the story is the Cinderella run of Liberty. The 13th-seeded Liberty club has sent two good teams home in Penn State and DePaul. They are led by 6′8″ center Katie Feenstra. Georgia fans will remember that Liberty was Georgia’s first-round opponent a year ago, and the Lady Dogs were able to pull away for a convincing 78-53 win.

The SEC has performed well. Though they sent an unusually-low five teams to the tournament, only one - Mississippi in a narrow loss to George Washington - has been eliminated. The four remaining SEC teams - Georgia, LSU, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt - make up 25% of the Sweet 16. In the next round, Georgia plays Duke in Chattanooga, LSU plays Liberty in Chattanooga, Tennessee plays Texas Tech in Philadelphia, and Vanderbilt faces Michigan State in Kansas City.

What an incredible team effort in a 70-68 win over #3 seed Texas in Dallas. Injuries and foul trouble had the Lady Dogs scrambling to protect a lead they held from wire-to-wire, and some gutsy individual performances down the stretch proved to be enough to send Georgia to their third straight Sweet 16.

Tasha Humphrey again led the way with 26 points and 10 rebounds, but the story was the play of fellow post Rebecca Rowsey. Rowsey had eight points, stepped outside to hit a clutch three-pointer, pulled down eleven rebounds, and had four blocks - the biggest was her block of Texas star Tiffany Jackson inside of 20 seconds remaining with Georgia clinging to a one-point lead. Cori Chambers helped the Lady Dogs get out to a blistering start by hitting 7-of-8 shots before being sidelined with foul trouble. Alexis Kendrick and Sherill Baker got Georgia’s transition game going and were pivotal in preventing Texas’s guards from matching Jackson’s scoring pace. Injuries to Hardrick, Darrah, and later to Baker made each individual contribution that much more significant.

Georgia advances to play the winner of Tuesday’s Duke-Boston College game on Saturday afternoon in Chattanooga. Games will be held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s McKenzie Arena. Ticket books for the weekend (including two Sweet 16 games plus Monday’s regional final) run $35 for adults and $20 for students.

For tickets, call UGA’s ticket office at 706-542-1231 or stop by in person as soon as possible. If UGA runs out of tickets, contact the UTC box office directly at 423/266-MOCS (6627). Check hotels.com if you need accomodations in Chattanooga.

The Lady Dogs survived in hostile territory against two Texan teams. Now as they return to Georgia’s border for the regionals, they need your support and presence in Chattanooga. Hope to see you there!

Recaps:

• UGA Sports Comm. / AP
• ABH
• AJC
• Box Score

Tasha was double-teamed, and the rest of the Lady Dogs stepped up to make Rice pay. Cori Chambers led Georgia with 19 points, and three other Lady Dogs reached double figures. 15 steals and 19 Rice turnovers caused by tight Georgia defense fueled the Lady Dogs’ transition game and enabled them to pull away in the first half. A rematch with third-seeded Texas awaits on Monday evening.

Recaps:

• UGA Sports Comm.
• AJC
• ABH
• Box Score

The much-anticipated rematch between Georgia and Texas will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern on Monday evening. ESPN will have the broadcast.

Athens, Ga. — Georgia’s Tasha Humphrey was named the co-National Freshman of the Year in women’s college basketball on Wednesday by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA). Humphrey shared the honor with Candice Wiggins of Stanford.

Humphrey, a 6-3, forward from Gainesville, Ga., already was named a unanimous first-team All-SEC selection by both league coaches and media. She and LSU’s Seimone Augustus, who was named the USBWA National Player of the Year, were the only two players who were unanimous first-team All-SEC picks by both organizations. Humphrey also was voted as SEC Freshman of the Year by league coaches and media and earned a spot on the All-SEC Tournament team.

Humphrey is averaging team highs of 19.1 points and 8.2 rebounds this season and also leads the Lady Bulldogs in field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentage and blocks. Humphrey is ranked among SEC individual statistical leaders in scoring (third), field goal percentage (third), rebounding (fifth), free throw percentage (ninth) and blocks per game (ninth).

“I guess it’s an understatement to say that she deserves it,” Andy Landers said. “When you battle the attention that she’s gotten defensively from the opposing teams without as much as flinching and you continue to perform night-in and night-out at the highest level ‹ forget whether you’re a freshman or a senior ‹ it’s impressive. The fact that she started it game one and as of the last game got 33, it kinds of tells you the story. She’s been a model of consistency, really.”

Humphrey reached double figures in 28 of 30 games, including scoring 20 or more points 14 times and more than 30 twice. Humphrey poured in a career-high 33 points in the Lady Bulldogs’ loss to No. 1 LSU in the SEC Tournament semifinals.

“First of all, none of this would be possible without my teammates,” Humphrey said. “Personally, I just came in wanting to do whatever I could and work my hardest to make our team the best we could be. It never was number one on my list of priorities, but in the back of my mind, it was one of the things on a short list of goals that I had for this season.”

Humphrey joins a long list of Lady Bulldog freshmen to win national honors. Georgia has produced 13 Freshman All-Americans, including seven in the last eight seasons alone. Humphrey becomes the Lady Dogs’ third National Freshman of the Year, joining Janet Harris in 1982 and Tammye Jenkins in 1988.

Georgia, which is 22-9 on the season and ranked No. 20 nationally, opens play in the 2005 NCAA Tournament this Saturday when the Lady Bulldogs face Rice (24-8) at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas, at approximately 2:15 p.m. ET. That contest will be televised nationally on espn2.

Georgia signee Danielle Taylor (6′1″ G/F) of Beach HS scored 26 points and pulled down six rebounds to earn South MVP honors at the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association’s North-South All-Star basketball game in Savannah over the weekend.

For those interested in heading to Dallas to support the Lady Dogs, Delta has a set of Last Minute Deals from Atlanta to Dallas that include airfare and optional hotel. Use this link:

http://deltavacations.lmdeals.com/detail.html?in_origination_key=481&in_package_key=5014686&in_listclick=pkg_button_fh

Please note that those packages are offered through Delta as a normal promotion. These deals have not been arranged by UGA, the Fastbreak Club, nor the NCAA and do not include game tickets. All travel arrangements need to be made by you.

Games will be held at Reunion Arena in Dallas.
777 Sports Street
Dallas, Texas 75207

If you do plan to go to Dallas, please remember to get your tickets from the UGA ticket office (706-542-1231) on Monday. Tickets will be available through the Reunion Arena Box Office later in the week, but you will not be assured a place with the rest of the Dawg fans.

Georgia and Rice will play in the NCAA Tournament’s opening round on Saturday, March 19th at 1:30 p.m. Central Time (2:30 p.m. Athens time). The game will be televised by ESPN2.

Texas / Oral Roberts will play at 11:00 a.m. Central Time.

Georgia faced NCAA Tournament-bound teams in 13 of their 31 games. They were 6-7 in those games:

Wins:
Texas, Santa Clara, Arizona, Ole Miss, Stetson, Ole Miss

Losses:
TCU, Arizona State, LSU, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Vanderbilt, LSU