Kayana Traylor helped the Hokies to a huge win on the road at Tennessee on Sunday. (Virginia Tech sports photography)[/caption]
Kayana Traylor found herself wide open in the mid-range on the first possession of the second half for No. 9 Virginia Tech. A Tennessee basket just brought the Lady Vols within two points. The Hokies’ guard, who was in the starting lineup due to Ashley Owusu’s injury she suffered on Thursday, knocked the shot down with her left hand at the elbow.
Then again, Tennessee knocked down another shot to bring itself within two, to which Traylor was in the same spot again. Splash. Tech went on a 10-0 run in just over two minutes in the third quarter. Thanks to Traylor’s two baskets, the Hokies were once again rolling on offense, and the lead stretched to 12, 46-34.
The next time the game was that close was with 10 seconds remaining, though. The Lady Vols outscored Tech 13-8 in the fourth and closed the gap to two with. But Jordan Horston missed a game-tying basket in the paint over Elizabeth Kitley — a long shot that D’asia Gregg pulled in to seal the game for Virginia Tech — which gave the Hokies a 59-56 win in Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn. on Sunday afternoon.
“During that stretch last year, they just kept making plays,” Tech head coach Kenny Brooks said about his team’s ability to finish on Sunday. “And we didn't make as many plays as we probably wish we had. But we made a couple of layups. Liz had a big jumper after she really couldn't get one to fall all night. I thought that Gregg was really good. She had a couple of loose ball rebounds.
“I told the kids, ‘Regardless of what's going to happen, you want to be able to say I went to Tennessee. And how do you want to finish this? … [So I want it] to be something that they always remember. We made sure that they understood that before the game started.”
It was an unfamiliar, yet familiar role for Traylor, who started her first game on Sunday since last March’s season-ending loss to Florida Gulf Coast in the NCAA Tournament. She started 12 games for Tech last season and spent Sunday in the spotlight for the Hokies once again.
But that path to starting on Sunday wasn’t simple — she missed Thursday’s game
“It was just a little bit of sickness,” Traylor said about her illness, “but I was able to come back the day after our game and get a couple practices in. I felt good.”
It was one of those wins that wasn’t pretty on the offensive end, but the Hokies played well on defense and just well enough on offense to pull it out. It’s a sign the team is taking another step in the right direction, though. Tech’s stars had off-days, yet the program still won somewhere where winning is never easy.
“We have kids who are capable, and no one cares who gets the credit,” Brooks said. “They just want to win a basketball game, and that's a recipe for success.”
Tennessee, too, was a man-down on offense with its leading scorer, Rickea Jackson, inactive on Sunday due to a “coach’s decision” that was announced by the Lady Vols prior to tip-off.
It was clear that both squads missed some offensive firepower from the tip. After Jasmine Powell turned the ball over, which resulted in a King steal, Amoore slowed the offense down. To that point, both teams were a combined 1-of-11, with the Hokies scoring the first two points on a Traylor basket.
Calmly, Amoore passed the ball to Traylor, who drew two free throws. She knocked both of them down, to which Tech went on a 10-5 run before the media timeout hit in the first quarter.
Tech’s shots then became more fluid. Kitley nailed a mid-range jumper over Tamari Key. Then King did the same, and then again from downtown, to which Amoore followed with a three of her own to give Tech a 14-5 lead halfway through the first quarter.
After missing its first six shots, Tennessee slowly grew into the matchup, knocking down five of its next seven shots. But Tech stuck around and led at the end of the period, 23-13.
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D'asia Gregg and the Hokies made some critical plays down the stretch in the victory. (Virginia Tech sports photography)
The Lady Vols hit their stride in the second quarter, though, and trailed by four, 34-30, at intermission. They drew even closer at the start of the second half, too. Horston and Jasmine Powell traded baskets with Traylor to bring their squad to within two. But thanks to a 10-0 run that saw King drain two 3-pointers, Tech’s lead grew back to double digits with just over six minutes left in the third period.
“We had a couple of bad possessions defensively to start the second half,” Brooks said. “And [Traylor] came off the ball screen a couple times. But she had two or three of those mid-range jump shots.
However, like it had done all day, Tennessee slowly chipped away at the Hokies’ lead. The Lady Vols hung around in the third quarter and only trailed by eight points entering the fourth. Once it began, Tech’s lead was fluid, moving from eight points to six, then back up to eight by the middle of the period.
Then, the Lady Vols trimmed it down to four points with 45 seconds left on Key’s fifth bucket of the night. After that, three points in 13 seconds from Horston cut the margin to two points. And Virginia Tech struggled late, hitting just three field goals in the fourth quarter.
After Amoore turned the ball over on a jump ball, Horston got another chance to play hero ball, but the shot rang long and Gregg ended up with the basketball with a second left.
Gregg was then fouled and sent to the line for two more free throws. Like her first trip to the stripe, she made one to increase Tech’s lead to three, 59-56. Tennessee had one final heave at the buzzer, but Horston’s half-court prayer fell short of the rim, giving Tech its first signature win of the season.
“Just proud of our group,” Brooks said. “Eerily similar to last year where we control the game going into the last five minutes and we falter down the stretch. We learned a lot from that game, and even though we didn’t finish it the exact way we wanted to, I thought we were resilient.”
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