GREENSBORO – The Virginia Tech women's basketball team utilized a balanced effort with four student-athletes scoring in double figures to get past Miami 72-64 in the team's opening game of the 2021 ACC Women's Basketball Tournament.
"Tremendous win for our program, so happy for these kids," Kenny Brooks said postgame. "The fashion that we won – obviously, had a little bit of adversity, we didn't hang our head. We built a lead, had more adversity and came through. These are the kind of games that will allow you to grow as a basketball team, a program but also the team individually."
Tech, (14-8) will meet second-seeded and AP number three NC State on Friday evening at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinal round.
The game got off to a quick start with few dead balls, with the first media timeout coming with 1:40 to go after the Hokies had built a 21-12 lead behind shots from Cayla King, point guard Georgia Amoore and Aisha Sheppard. Tech led by as much as 19 in the second quarter after a free throw from D'asia Gregg who secured her first career double-double off of the bench.
The Hokies led by 15 at the break.
Miami, who fell to 11-11 on the season was led by 27 points from Destiny Harden on 11 of 19 shooting from the field.
The Canes did mount a charge, cutting the lead to seven at one point before the Hokies closed out the contest.
Gregg scored 13 and had 10 rebounds, while Elizabeth Kitley and Amoore each scored 16 points and King added 15.
GAME NOTES
•Virginia Tech is now 10-21 against the Hurricanes all-time and 1-1 in ACC Tournament games.
•Kenny Brooks' record moves to 100-57 at Virginia Tech and 437-179 in his career.
•Tech is 9-3 all-time on March 4.
•The starting lineup of Georgia Amoore, Aisha Sheppard, Cayla King, Azana Baines and Elizabeth Kitley accounted for 58 points.
•With her 3-pointer in the first half, Aisha Sheppard broke her own program record with 85 3's in a single season.
💯🤟🥳 pic.twitter.com/SrHy0osavm
— Virginia Tech Women's Basketball (@HokiesWBB) March 5, 2021
•The Hokies are now 4-1 all-time in the second round of the ACC Tournament.
💯🤟🥳 pic.twitter.com/SrHy0osavm
— Virginia Tech Women's Basketball (@HokiesWBB) March 5, 2021
NEXT TIME ON THE COURT
•The Hokies will meet the second-seeded NC State Wolfpack Friday evening at 6 p.m. a game which can be seen on RSN.
In the regular season, the Hokies and Wolfpack split the series with the home team winning on each occasion. In the first meeting, Aisha Sheppard scored her record 270th 3-point basket breaking Vanessa Panousis' program record. The Hokies fell by two points.
The second meeting came four days later at Cassell Coliseum with the Hokies earning the best win in program history by knocking off the No. 2 Wolfpack 83-71 in overtime. Sheppard scored 28 in that contest, all after halftime, including 18 in the overtime period. The Hokies' 24 points in the extra session was the most by a D1 women's program in NCAA history.
The programs have met in this competition once before, a 57-56 decision for the Hokies in 2015.
Virginia Tech is 0-5 all-time in the quarterfinal round of the competition, most recently competing there in 2018.Gallery: (3-4-2021) 2021 ACC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT vs. MIAMI