Rutgers – 45, Georgia – 34. Prediction: This is not a game Andy Landers will be showing to his young basketball campers next summer. This one was ugly. Leisure suit ugly. Bowling shoes ugly. This game had more walking than an early morning at the mall, more turnovers than a pastry shop, and featured more bad passes than you see after “last call” at the Country Rock. For the second straight game, a tight contest breaks open with an early second-half run by the opposition. The Scarlet Knights opened the second half with a 12-3 run, extending a one-point halftime lead to ten. From there, the Lady Dawgs sputtered on offense and just couldn’t reel Rutgers back in. Too many turnovers (26, a season high) and a lack of a “go-to” scoring threat doomed Georgia tonight…a night when a big win was within reach.

Ashley iron-manned it tonight, playing all forty minutes, scoring nine, and taking an elbow to the face that will probably leave her sporting a shiner below her left eye for the rest of the week. But the Lady Dawgs’ struggles were probably best personified by Porsha’s 8-turnover performance in 20 minutes. A very frustrating night in New Jersey.

Tonight’s game finally concluded a demanding stretch of the schedule that saw the Lady Dawgs play 7 games in the past 13 days. They get a bit of a break now for final exams, not taking the court again until December 20 for a date with UAB in Birmingham. But we won’t be going on hiatus here at your official Fastbreak Club weblog. We’ll be updating the ‘blog regularly with Club news and the inside scoop on NCAA women’s college basketball…including our Lady Bulldogs.

Click here for the official recap and a link to the stats and box score.

If you were to carve a women’s basketball coaches version of Mount Rushmore, two of the faces on it would belong to Andy Landers and the coach of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, C. Vivian Stringer (pictured). It’s no wonder that ESPN2 wanted tomorrow night’s game between our Lady Dawgs and the Knights for national television. This is full-tilt, legend-on-legend action. Rutgers is off to a 3-2 start…but don’t let that fool you…those two losses were to number-three California and fourth-ranked Stanford. The Knights are proponents of what former Arkansas men’s coach Nolan Richardson used to call “40 minutes of hell.” They will press and aggressively “D”-up on the Lady Bulldogs on every single possession. Rutgers will, in short, present by far the biggest challenge of this young season.

Georgia and Rutgers will tip off at 7:00 PM tomorrow night at the Louis Brown Convention Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey. ESPN2 will be televising the festivities and, as always, Jeff Dantzler will be courtside calling the game for the Georgia Bulldog Radio Network. Your official Fastbreak Club weblog will have a recap of the game up shortly after the final buzzer.

NOTE: Tomorrow night’s game between Georgia and Rutgers is part of the annual Jimmy V Classic, with proceeds going to The V Foundation for Cancer Research. To learn more about The V Foundation and how you can contribute to the ongoing fight against cancer, click here.

Click here for the official Georgia/Rutgers game notes.

Here’s a link to the Rutgers women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Scarlet Knight roster.

“I got stung.” – Elvis Presley

57-42, Tech. Georgia Tech opened the second half with an 18-6 run that pretty much iced what had been anybody’s game at halftime. Jaleesa broke out of her early-season shooting slump to lead the Lady Bulldogs with 13 points and Danielle scored a dozen. Ashley, Angela, Porsha, and Christy just never got untracked offensively, shooting a combined 5-of-27 from the field. Just not a lot to hang your hats on tonight, Fastbreakers. After the game, Coach Landers was in no mood to mince words: “We did not deserve to win. It’s as simple as that. They took the ball away from us. We missed some easy shots inside. We just did not execute. It’s frustrating.”

The schedule gets no easier as the Lady Dawgs now head to New Jersey for a nationally televised game (ESPN2) with Rutgers on Monday night. We’ll have a Georgia/Rutgers preview posted here on Sunday.

Click here for the official recap and a link to the stats and box score.

Georgia vs. Tech. How much more can you really add to that? Especially after last weekend, right? If you can make it downtown to Alexander Memorial Coliseum tomorrow night, you ought to. We’ll need a lot of obnoxiously vocal wearers of the red and black in those bleachers for this one. Tech is coming off a big upset of Michigan State last night and they’ll be jacked to the max. The Lady Bulldogs will need to withstand what’s almost sure to be a frenzied, emotion-fueled opening five minutes or so before the atmosphere settles down. The veterans will need to lead and the kids will need to grow up in a hurry. It should be a blast to watch. If you can’t get there, your local Georgia Bulldog Radio Network affiliate station with have all the action tipping off at 7:00 PM.

Click here for the official Georgia/Georgia Tech game notes.

Here’s a link to Georgia Tech’s women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Yellow Jacket roster.

This just in from the UGA Sports Communications Office:

ATHENS, GA. —A quartet of the nation’s top girls’ basketball players inked letters of intent with the Georgia Lady Bulldogs on Wednesday (November 12, national signing day), giving Andy Landers and his staff what is widely regarded as one of the top-5 recruiting classes in the nation.

Anne Marie Armstrong, Jasmine Hassell, Jasmine James and Tamika Willis — each ranked among the nation’s top-50 overall prospects by one or more scouting services — will continue their basketball careers in Athens next fall. The class has been ranked No. 3 nationally by both All-Star Girls Basketball Report and The Collegiate Girls Basketball Report, as well as No. 5 by Blue Star and No. 7 by Hoopgurlz.

“I’m very pleased with the quality of the class,” head coach Andy Landers said. “I’m sure this class as a whole will be recognized as an outstanding group, but each individual player is outstanding and will have the opportunity to make our team better. This is the sum total of a lot of hard work and diligence on the part of our coaching staff and our assistant coaches should be congratulated.”

Armstrong, a 6-3, wing coached by Jan Azar at the Wesleyan School in Norcross, Ga., is the reigning Miss Georgia Basketball and ranked as the nation’s No. 6 prospect at her position by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. Armstrong has captured no less than seven state titles in her first three years of high school — two championships in basketball, three in volleyball and two individual crowns in the high jump.

“Anne Marie is an exciting part of this class,” Landers said. “She represents the tallest perimeter player that we’ve ever had at 6-3. She has excellent skills and a lot of untapped potential. All she’s done is win. She’s dominated several sports in high school and I’m eager to see what happens when she concentrates on one.”

Jasmine Hassell, a 6-2, center coached by Bud Brandon at Wilson Central High School in Lebanon, Tenn., was named the 2008 Division I AAA Miss Basketball for Tennessee after leading the Wildcats to their second state title in three years. She is listed as the nation’s No. 6 center by the All-Star Girls Report. Hassell scored 71 of her team’s 143 points in its 2008 state tournament games.

“Jasmine is a proven player,” Landers said. “She’s won in a very competitive high school environment, she was a feature player on a very good summer team and she wins. Her style is a mix of both skill and aggressiveness. She’s just a very powerful player.”

James, a 5-9, guard coached by Lynn Whitfield at Barlett High School in Memphis, Tenn., was named the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s Player of the Year as both a sophomore and a junior. She is ranked No. 5 nationally among guard prospects by the All-Star Girls Report. As a junior, James averaged 24.8 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals while leading Barlett to its first state tournament appearance since 1928.

“Jasmine has the potential to make the lights on our side of the scoreboard change often,” Landers said. “She is an excellent offensive basketball player who not only scores it but creates scoring chances for other people. She has the potential to be an outstanding defender as well.”

Willis, a 6-2, forward coached by Hilda Hankerson at Atlanta’s Westlake High, is a two time All-State performer in Class AAAA and tabbed as the No. 11 post prospect by the Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. Willis was a consensus first-team All-State pick after leading Westlake to the semifinals of the state tournament as a junior, a year after she garnered second-team All-State honors as a sophomore.

“Tamika is a warrior,” Landers said. “She brings the fight; she doesn’t watch it. She’s an extremely hard worker, plays the game with great enthusiasm and has an excellent post player skill set. She can score it low, high and she’ll rebound. She’s definitely an underrated player.”

(Photo courtesy of Georgia Sports Communications)

Georgia – 72, Tennessee Tech – 46. Well, as we say so often about these early-season games, it wasn’t exactly one for the time capsule. The Lady Dawgs left a lot of points on the rim in the opening minutes and frequent stoppages for turnovers and fouls made it hard to establish an offensive rhythm…but they also picked up the tempo on offense. Lots of classic Georgia run-and-gun and not very many half-court sets. When the offense was clicking, it was fun to watch…and it was a glance into the future of what is destined to be a super-quick, up-tempo Lady Bulldog offensive mindset heading into SEC play next month.

Angela drained some long threes in the first half and led all Georgia scorers with 13 points (and seven assists, just for good measure). Christy came up one rebound short of a double-double, finishing with 12 points and 9 boards. Angel flexed her muscle inside, blocking a season-high four shots (moving her into ninth place on the all-time Lady Bulldog career blocks list).

Things get real serious real quick now for Georgia as they head to Atlanta to take on Georgia Tech Friday night (a Tech team which, oh by the way, smoked 21st-ranked Michigan State tonight) and then it’s off to Jersey for a nationally televised Monday night game with Rutgers in the Jimmy V Basketball Classic. We’ll have a preview of the Georgia Tech game posted here sometime late tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.

Click here for the official recap and a link to the stats and box score.

The Golden Eagles of Tennessee Tech fly in here tomorrow night having lost five of their first six games. However, they’ve only been blown out once and are coming off a very respectable showing against Georgia Tech (losing by 12) in a holiday tournament down in Florida over the weekend. As you all probably know, our very own Coach Andy Landers is a Tennessee Tech alumnus, so…just remember, Golden Eagles…it’s not personal. It’s strictly business.

Georgia and Tennessee Tech will tip off at 7:00 tomorrow night at Stegeman Coliseum. Be sure to check back here for a game recap and exclusive photos a couple of hours after the final buzzer.

Here’s a link to Tennessee Tech’s women’s basketball page.

Click here to see the complete Golden Eagle roster.