No. 13 Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball Holds Off Louisville Late, 81-79

With under two minutes to play and the shot clock winding down to three seconds, Georgia Amoore took a chance. The Virginia Tech point guard had only made one of her seven 3-point attempts all night, but with no time to think, she pulled the trigger. 

It took guts to even take the shot because the No. 13 Hokies needed one point to tie the game at 77. But the heroic decision turned out to be the right one as Amoore drilled the trey in front of her defender to give Virginia Tech a two-point lead with 1:50 to play.

It was, in essence, the desperate shot Virginia Tech needed to turn the past few weeks around, especially as hope began to dwindle. The Hokies’ leading scorer, Taylor Soule (24 points), had fouled out a possession before. 

An Amoore layup and a pair of free throws was enough to fight off a potential game-tying inbound play with three seconds left as Virginia Tech (14-3, 4-3 ACC) defeated Louisville (13-6, 4-2 ACC) 81-79 at Cassell Coliseum on Thursday night. It marked the first victory in the series since 1995 and the first for head coach Kenny Brooks over the Cardinals in his career.

“[Louisville] is good,” Brooks said after the win. “Last year, they went to the Final Four. … We have a veteran group now and we made the plays when we needed to.”

Coming in, Virginia Tech was on the wrong end of a couple upsets in the past few weeks, though both were on the road. The first came at Clemson three days before the new year, a shock since the Tigers were projected to be a bottom dweller in the conference. Then came a loss to Miami, who was expected to compete towards the top of the ACC but wasn’t supposed to be nearly the threat the Hokies were, most recently on Sunday.

Those two games – and a misstep against Notre Dame in mid-December – dropped Tech to three losses in its first six conference games. But the veteran-laden team refocused, which showed on Thursday. 

“I think the biggest thing we learned is from our defense,” Traylor said about what the team learned from its close losses. “A lot of our offense, we get confidence from our defense. I think down the stretch where we could’ve given up [against Louisville] but we locked in and got three stops at the end.”

Louisville, originally picked to win the conference back in October, came into town on Thursday night. The Cardinals hadn’t played their best basketball this season, losing to Ohio State and Middle Tennessee over a month ago, but were hot as of late. They had won eight of their last nine with the only blunder against No. 16 Duke, the ACC’s only undefeated team in conference play.

There’s been some adversity for Virginia Tech this winter, somewhat unexpected after last year’s run to the ACC tournament semifinal. It played some tough opponents early in the season away from Cassell and dealt with an injury to a key player. With that came a shortened bench.

Early on, the Hokies didn’t have any trouble generating turnovers as they forced Louisville to commit six of them in the first quarter. But the problems started when Tech had to put the basketball in the basket after taking the ball away. VT came away with  just two points. 

Yet, the Hokies still found a way to lead 20-16 at the end of the quarter. They used Elizabeth Kitley’s height advantage over Morgan Jones and Olivia Cochran down low, kicking it to her on seven occasions as she knocked down five buckets for 10 points.

“They were playing man,” Kitley said, “which led to the open looks I got early.”

But Tech’s offense began to slip in the second quarter as it converted 7-of-16 (43.8%) shots, down from its first period efficiency (52.9%). It stopped feeding the basketball to Kitley, who didn’t attempt a shot in the period. Instead, Traylor and Soule took over as the pair scored 11 of Tech’s 16 points as the Hokies took a 36-32 lead into the break.

In the third, Soule didn’t stop scoring the basketball as she recorded 13 points in this sequence: a layup, a free throw, another layup, two free throws, a third layup, a fourth layup and finally a fifth for her 20th and 21st points of the night. It was a good enough effort to account for nearly two-thirds of the Hokies’ 21 points in the period.

As the lid came off the basket for Tech in the third, it did the same for Louisville who scored 26 points on 15 baskets (66.7%) to take a 58-57 lead into the final quarter. Meanwhile, Tech struggled shooting from beyond the arc as it only made one of its six attempts, matching the same clip it had in the first quarter.

“We’ve got to be better shooting the ball,” Brooks said. “We’ve been in a slump lately.”

With three minutes remaining, Louisville’s Morgan Jones drove towards the paint with the shot clock dwindling down. Soule, who had four fouls after a previous technical, put her arms up to contest the layup and proceeded to foul out.

But Virginia Tech didn’t look like the team that of the past few weeks. Despite trailing for the first nine minutes of the final quarter, Tech didn’t fold under pressure thanks to Amoore’s 3-pointer and, of course, the defensive stop as the final buzzer sounded.

“A really good win for us,” Brooks said. “I think we grew up a little tonight.”

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