BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech celebrated the career of five young ladies on the court pregame and celebrated a 69-57 victory after the final horn as the Hokies closed out the 2018-19 regular season on Carilion Clinic Court at Cassell Coliseum Sunday afternoon.
The win, Tech's 19th of the season secures the 10-seed in the ACC Women's Basketball Tournament which tips off on Wednesday, March 6 from the Greensboro Coliseum.
"Senior Day is tough it really is because there're so much emotions going on before the game and you're taken out of your routine and it can be hard to focus on the actual basketball game," head coach Kenny Brooks remarked postgame. "I'm very proud of these kids, very proud of these seniors for us to be able to send them out in a good fashion is very nice."
After Wake Forest scored the game's first basket redshirt Senior Regan Magarity laid in a bucked and teammates Taylor Emery and Aisha Sheppard each knocked down 3-pointers, a theme that Tech would revisit late in the game.
For Magarity, a player who has etched her name into the record books in so many places, it seemed fitting that on her Senior Night, with her parents in town from Sweden, that she would make a little more. The game was her 123rd start of her career passing former teammate Vanessa Panousis for most all-time.
(3/3/2019) 2019 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL SENIOR DAY
It was another workman-like performance from the Sweden native, who recorded her 20th double-double of the season behind 17 points and 15 rebounds. With the effort she vaults into fourth place all-time at Virginia Tech in the scoring column.
Her fellow seniors made major contributions to the victory, with Emery scoring a game-high 20 points, Rachel Camp made a clutch 3-pointer to ignite a run in the second half and Erinn Brooks gathered an offensive rebound and scored a layup on her final regular season appearance at Cassell Coliseum.
The Hokies led by seven points heading into the fourth period and promptly staved off any comeback attempt with a barrage of 3-point baskets. In fact, Tech didn't miss making all six attempts in the final 10 minutes (two each from Aisha Sheppard, Emery and Dara Mabrey).
Wake Forest (10-19, 1-15) shot 38 percent from the field on the afternoon, doing most of their damage in the post where they accounted for 32 points. Three players were in double figures with forward Alex Sharp leading the squad with 18 points, and Gina Conti and Maya Banks each scoring 12.
What's next:
The 2019 ACC Tournament in Greensboro, North Carolina is set to begin on Wednesday, March 6 and run through Sunday, March 10. All games will be played at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Tech plays in the second game of the day, a 3:30 p.m. tip on Regional Sports Networks.
Quoting Coach Brooks:
• "We have a lot of basketball left we hope and now it's do or die and I think Regan is going to do a great job of bringing us home. You can't lead unless you have people who are receptive o coaching and I think the other players have done a good job of putting their differences aside and allowing Regan to step up and lead so I've been very happy with that whole group. "
•"We just need to focus on ourselves. I'm sure Wake is going to have a couple of adjustments, we'll have a couple of adjustments and just have to see what happens. They are a good team, they present a lot of matchup problems"
Inside the box score:
• Tech made 10 3-pointers in a league contest for the ninth time this season
• Despite the size of Wake Forest around the floor, the Hokies won the battle on the glass 36-34