Avery Brittingham’s last bid for Stephen F. Austin’s season left her fingertips a fraction of a second too late.
The first-round game had been singled out early as a potential upset: No. 12 seed SFA was an analytical darling that had steamrolled almost all of its mid-major competition and seemingly had a good chance to show against No. 5 seed Georgia Tech. That prediction looked straight on for the first two quarters, and at halftime, the Ladyjackets went into the locker room at halftime with a 17-point lead. But that gradually disintegrated over the course of the second half and overtime, until it came down to the final few moments for Brittingham, with possession of the ball and her team down by two.