High-powered offense has Georgia Tech undefeated and ahead of schedule

Dani Carnegie, after a quick pump-fake, had just driven into the teeth of a vaunted North Carolina defense, sunk a lay-up and drawn a foul. Fortner was confident that her stellar freshman would knock down the ensuing free throw, completing a 3-point play and tying the game up — which she did.

That sequence came amidst a decisive 26-10 run for Georgia Tech on Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C., as it erased a seven-point deficit, snatched the lead from No. 14 UNC and never looked back. Carnegie — a 5’9 freshman — had her best game yet, blowing up the box score with 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists to lead the Yellow Jackets to an 82-76 upset win over the Tar Heels in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener for both teams.

“To play as hard as we did — and at times, as undersized as we are — I’m really super proud of this team and their effort,” Fortner said.

For Fortner’s side, the victory is significant on multiple levels. It marks the first time that the Yellow Jackets have won in the historic Carmichael Arena since 2012. It also makes Georgia Tech 11-0 this year, which is its best start to a season in program history.

“We’re undefeated, but every single day is a new challenge. We don’t feel like we’re undefeated,” said junior Georgia Tech forward Kara Dunn. “To come out the way we did, that was great, but we’re still hungry. … I feel really good about this team.”

Voters in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll were impressed with the Yellow Jackets too, bumping them up from 25th to 17th in the latest rankings released Monday, making them the biggest mover in the poll this week. Georgia Tech is also 16th in the NCAA’s latest NET rankings.

The Yellow Jackets’ win over the Tar Heels on their home floor — handing UNC just its second loss of the season — signifies something more, though.

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For starters, Georgia Tech appears to be far ahead of schedule according to the expectations set for them by the ACC’s Blue-Ribbon Panel, which picked the Yellow Jackets to finish 10th in the league and selected zero Georgia Tech players to its preseason teams. In addition to making the members of that panel look silly for underestimating them, the Yellow Jackets may very well be flying under the radar as one of the best teams in the country.

And that’s not hyperbole.

Consider that on Sunday, Georgia Tech had one of its best offensive performances of the season against one of the top defensive teams in the country. North Carolina entered its matchup with the Yellow Jackets ranking fifth nationally in points allowed per scoring attempt (0.8), sixth in opponent effective field goal percentage (37.3) and seventh in points allowed per play (0.62), per Her Hoop Stats. This is a Tar Heel team that smothered Kentucky, Indiana and Villanova, and has held seven of its opponents to their lowest scoring totals of the season so far.

And all Georgia Tech did was shoot 51.7% from the floor — its overall third-best single-game mark of the season, and best against a major conference opponent. No other team has shot that well against UNC this season. The Yellow Jackets shot 8.6% better from the floor and scored 13 more points than No. 4 UConn did against the Tar Heels on Nov. 15 in Greensboro.

“Nell has done a great job with that group, both in recruiting and in coaching,” UNC coach Courtney Banghart said. “We were worried about their attack on the paint. We were worried about them on the offensive glass. The things we were worried about, they were able to do to us. … They made a lot of really contested shots.”

While the Yellow Jackets have been solid defensively as well this season — ranking 11th in the nation in defensive rebounding rate and on Sunday holding All-ACC forward Alyssa Ustby without a field goal — offense is what has been fueling them.

Before beating the Tar Heels, Georgia Tech hammered Louisiana Monroe 97-37. And while the Warhawks are far short of being a juggernaut in women’s college basketball, the result marked Georgia Tech’s largest margin of victory in program history. Earlier this season, in a win over Florida A&M, the Yellow Jackets knocked down a program-record 15 3-pointers, with seven different players hitting at least one shot from deep. In the next game — a win over Mississippi State — Georgia Tech attempted a program-record 38 shots from beyond the arc. The Yellow Jackets have made 103 shots from deep this season, which is 10th in the country.

Simply put, the Yellow Jackets are doing things they’ve never done before offensively in Fortner’s sixth season at the helm. While they only have one player on their roster taller than 6’2, Fortner doesn’t consider this playing style to be her way of building a different mousetrap to compete in the ACC. It’s just what fits into the skillset of this squad.

“We like to play at a faster pace. We like to push that tempo. We have players that like to play that way. So that helps a lot, too,” Fortner said. “We’ve got the shooters who can shoot it. We’ve got athletes who can drive it. We decided this is how we want to play, so that’s how we recruited. It’s a fun style to play, and it’s something that suits the players that we have.”

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It’s also worth noting that Georgia Tech ranks seventh nationally in assist-turnover ratio with a 1.54 mark. That could be attributed to the fact that these Yellow Jackets added just one transfer this season — Georgia’s Zoesha Smith — which is a bit of a rarity in today’s landscape of college basketball. Put another way, most of this Georgia Tech team has been playing together quite a while and knows one another extremely well.

Evidence of that shows up in the play between Tonie Morgan, Kayla Blackshear and Dunn, three players who have been among the leaders for the Yellow Jackets in minutes played this season and each of the past two. Morgan and Dunn are juniors who arrived to the Flats as high school recruits, while Blackshear is a senior who came at the same time after spending her freshman campaign at Alabama.

While Carnegie’s all-around play can be credited for powering Georgia Tech to its ACC-opening win in Chapel Hill, the play of the Yellow Jackets’ elder trio was crucial too: Morgan had 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting and four assists; Blackshear — whom Fortner called “one of the best undersized post players in the country — had 12 points and five offensive boards; and Dunn added 13 points and three assists in a game-high 39 minutes.

“We’re on our way, and I can’t even tell you how good that feels,” Dunn said. “The past few years were rough. Everything we’ve put in the past two years is coming to fruition right now.”

Morgan, Dunn and Blackshear have been the nucleus of Georgia Tech’s rebuild. And it hasn’t been easy.

Fortner was hired in 2019 after Georgia Tech fired former coach MaChelle Joseph after 16 seasons amid a scandal. In 2021, the NCAA ruled that Joseph had “committed practice and coaching limit violations” and “violated head coach responsibility rules.” Meanwhile, under Fortner, the Yellow Jackets found their footing. They went 20-11 in her first season, when the NCAA Tournament was canceled because of COVID-19, and followed that up with a 17-9 mark the next season, which included a program-record-tying 12 wins in ACC play and just the program’s second-ever appearance in the Sweet 16. In year 3 under Fortner, Georgia Tech went 21-11 — beating three ranked opponents, including UConn — and again made the NCAA Tournament.

Those early Fortner teams were built much differently, leaning on strength, size and depth in the post. Fortner’s 2021 Sweet 16 team ranked 311th nationally in possessions per 40 minutes (66.9), and they were getting just 26% of their points from 3-point land, which ranked 207th.

But when the core of that group — anchored by two-time ACC Defensive Player of the Year Lorela Cubaj and All-ACC guard Lotta-Maj Lahtinen — moved on, the Yellow Jackets began taking some lumps. In the past two seasons, they’ve gone a combined 11-25 in ACC play.

Despite the difficult results, Fortner retained a group of key players and has developed them over the past two seasons. And now they’re beginning to reap the benefits of that continuity and experience some real success.

“The last two years have been tough on us,” Fortner said. “It’s been hard. But Tonie Morgan and Kara Dunn drew the line in the sand and said, ‘No, we’re doing it here. We’re staying at Georgia Tech. We believe in this coaching staff.’ They said those words. … They’ve got high goals. They’ve been good leaders. And hopefully we continue to see the payoff of that.”

Georgia Tech has now beaten four Power 4 opponents this season, including two SEC teams in Georgia and Mississippi State, and two then-ranked opponents in Oregon and UNC. The Yellow Jackets also comfortably defeated March Madness regular South Dakota State on a neutral floor. Entering play on Tuesday, they are one of just nine remaining undefeated teams.

Fortner has mashed together that veteran core with a talented group of a freshman that is led by Carnegie, who is looking like a lock to make the All-Rookie team in the ACC. Carnegie, who grew up in New York before attending high school in the Atlanta suburbs of Gwinnett County, was tabbed as the 29th best recruit in the 2024 class by ESPN’s HoopGurlz. The Yellow Jackets also brought in two more ESPN Top 100 recruits this season in Chazadi Wright and Tianna Thompson, two other players who went to high school in the Peach State.

“She’s just a highly-skilled offensive player that has a great feel for the game, really high basketball IQ and has really just bought in to everything that we’re doing,” Fortner said of Carnegie. “She’s really a fun kid to coach. That whole freshman class has really brought a lot to the table for us.”

Dunn hails from Georgia as well and knew about Carnegie’s talents long before she arrived on campus. Carnegie leads all ACC freshman in scoring this season with 14.6 points per game.

“I already knew who Dani was. Dani is amazing. She came off the bench and immediately elevated the game. You can see it,” Dunn said. “To have that type of power coming off your bench is huge. She makes a difference.”

Georgia Tech will play two more non-conference games at home this week in McCamish Pavilion, hosting Rice and Nebraska before resuming ACC play on Dec. 29 at home against Pitt. If Sunday’s game in Chapel Hill was any indication, the Yellow Jackets will be seeded much higher than 10th when the ACC Tournament rolls around in March.

Of Fortner’s Yellow Jackets, Banghart concluded: “It’s a really good team, and they’ll continue to prove that in our league.”

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