As Virginia Tech point guard Georgia Amoore slowly dribbled the ball up the floor with a six-point lead and 70 ticks on the clock left, she had two jobs. One: burn as much time as she could. And two: find an open teammate with a good look at the basket.
The Hokies had built a lead that was as many as 22 points early in the second half. Yet it wasn’t comfortable enough as the VT defense — a unit that had played arguably its best 20 minutes all season in the first half — watched that evaporate. A tad after the midway point in the fourth quarter, that lead had shrunk to just five.
As Amoore was double-teamed near the left side of the half-court line, she dribbled behind her back and took off towards the paint. She whipped a pass across the hardwood to Cayla King, who caught her pass on the right wing, took a step and a dribble before firing a 3-pointer that found the bottom of the basket.
She had yet to make a basket — King only took three shots all night — but in the end, it was the one that mattered. Her trey was the dagger in Virginia Tech’s 73-63 win over No. 11 Georgia Tech at Cassell Coliseum on Thursday night.
Amoore (21 points), Elizabeth Kitley (18), Kayana Traylor (14) and Aisha Sheppard (12) all scored in double-figures for Virginia Tech. It’s the third time in league play this season that the Hokies have received at least 12 points from four different players in a game, joining the Florida State and Wake Forest contests.
“We’re ahead of them [Georgia Tech] in the NET [rankings], not the [AP Poll], so I’m not considering this an upset,” Virginia Tech head coach Kenny Brooks said. “The kids were tremendous. Locked in for all 40 minutes.”
Coming off of perhaps VT’s best offensive performance of the season against Clemson (44 points in the second half), VT continued that momentum at home for a third win in five days. The victory catapulted the Hokies (18-6, 10-3 ACC) into a tie for third place with No. 18 Notre Dame in the ACC standings as they search for a double-bye heading into the conference tournament.
Virginia Tech nearly blew its lead on multiple occasions. A missed trey from King early in the fourth let the Yellow Jackets (18-5, 7-4 ACC) pull within six on the ensuing possession. A bad pass from Kitley a few minutes later led to a Georgia Tech three from Sarah Bates, cutting the lead to five.
But in the clutch, it was King who was able to free herself up for the game-winning basket.
All night long, VT abused the lane. The duo of Traylor and Sheppard, two of the best slashers on the Hokies, penetrated the defense for easy buckets at the hoop and the foul line. The Yellow Jackets kept that in the back of their head down the stretch, and it came back to bite them with King's trey.
“I think we had the right mindset coming into this game that we can play with anyone,” Kitley said. “And I think that we proved that.”
Amoore, too, hit a clutch 3-pointer. She freed herself using a screen from Kitley at the top of the arc, one of her five treys on the night. Most impressive was her step-back trey after a crossover that was the No. 1 play on SportsCenter.
https://twitter.com/HokiesWBB/status/1492114907109732360?s=20&t=x3kQJTsjXZv7C1pRznwfEg
“Georgia and I have this little game going on,” Brooks said. “I’ll ask her who the best point guard is in the ACC. When we first started she reluctantly would say ‘I am.’ … But now as she’s getting more and more confidence she says ‘I am.’”
The Hokies finished 9-of-15 from beyond the arc, but their ball movement and passing inside the arc was key. Georgia Tech is one of the tallest teams in the ACC, but VT attacked the paint in the first half. Kitley and Sheppard each had 12 points at intermission on a combined 9-of-18.
Kitley had little trouble getting open in the paint despite GT's talent down low. She used her size and footwork to uncover and convert close and mid-range shots, and finished 9-of-20. Kitley took five more shots by the first media timeout than she did in her two-shot performance two nights earlier.
“Before it’s all said and done, Liz will be Dirk Nowitzki-esque,” Brooks said. “She’s trying to be comfortable. There’s a lot of times where she’ll get an open shot and I’ll be like ‘shoot it’ and then she’s just like, ‘okay should I, or should I not.’”
And her first half effort allowed Virginia Tech to pull away and lead 39-21 at halftime. Even though Georgia Tech roared back and threatened, the Yellow Jackets never led in the ballgame.
Using two 5-0 runs, GT eventually chipped away the big margin in the third quarter. The Yellow Jackets brought it back to a nine-point game with a 11-0 run. By last season’s standards, the Hokies likely would have choked away the lead and caved in to the momentum.
However, with the bench depth and maturity the 2021-22 team has, gone are the days of hoping that the Hokies could limp to the finish line with a win. They’re more experienced. One that, no matter how close they are to letting a lead slip, has the heart other teams don’t. They’ve shown that time and time again this season.
And Brooks says that he’ll tell that to anyone that’ll listen to him.
“Since I’ve been here, this is the best team I’ve had.”