No. 12 Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball Falls At No. 16 Duke In Rock Fight

D’asia Gregg and Virginia Tech led in the third quarter but were stifled the rest of the way at Duke. (Virginia Tech Athletics)

On Thursday night in a ranked clash, No. 16 Duke handed No. 12 Virginia Tech its first loss in four games in a 66-55 rock fight in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

It was a tough night for reigning ACC Player of the Week Elizabeth Kitley, who scored just two points on one-of-nine shooting. Georgia Amoore (seven points, 2-of-12) was quiet as well.

As a result, the Hokies (16-4, 6-4 ACC) had to look elsewhere for offense.  The other three starters and D’asia Gregg combined for 46 of Tech’s 55 points, led by Taylor Soule (19 points). Cayla King and Kayana Traylor finished with nine points each while Gregg added seven. In all, they shot 14-of-28.

Shayeann Day-Wilson led the Blue Devils (18-2, 8-1 ACC) with 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting. Nine players in the 10-man rotation scored in the team effort. Duke shot 41.5% for the game despite a hot first quarter where it was 9-of-14 (64%).

“Duke played well, they played hard, they were very physical,” Tech head coach Kenny Brooks said after the loss. “They did what they wanted to do. I don’t know what Kara [Lawson]’s gameplan was but it looked like they executed it, and they deserved to win the basketball game.”

The Blue Devils led for the entire first half and the lead stretched to as much as nine towards the end of the first quarter. But Virginia Tech fought back, holding Duke to three field goals in the second quarter while shooting 42% itself.

Day-Wilson had 12 of her 18 points in the first half, leading all scorers. Gregg, Soule and Traylor each had seven.

The Hokies locked down defensively after the first quarter, limiting the Blue Devils to 6-of-24 from the field for the second and third periods. Duke missed six of its first seven shots after intermission, which allowed Tech to close the gap.

Taylor Soule was huge for Virginia Tech. She essentially kept the Hokies in the game in the late stages. (Virginia Tech Athletics)

“We did a good job,” Brooks said of the team’s defense. “Day-Wilson really got them going – I think she was perfect on the day for a while – but then we settled in and started to play and not just play their plays. We did a decent job. Our defense was okay; we just have to shore up some other things.”

But Tech had its struggles. After retaking the lead via a King 3-pointer with 4:17 to play in the third quarter, the team couldn’t buy a basket the rest of the way. Duke’s defense was suffocating, allowing just 15 points for the remainder of the game. Over the same stretch, Kara Lawson’s squad scored 29.

Tech made six of its 23 field goals in the second half (26%). The two in the third quarter were both 3-pointers; Soule was the only player to hit one in the fourth. She was the lone motor for Kenny Brooks & Co., making six of her 11 shots and six of her eight free throws.

“She rose to the level of the way the game was going, the flow of the game,” Brooks said of Soule. “And she has that, she has that physicality and she’s been playing well so I’m very, very proud of her and what she’s bringing to us and it’s only going to continue to get better.”

But the Blue Devils controlled every facet of the contest, forcing 10 turnovers and blocking six shots in the second half. For the game, those numbers were 17 and seven, respectively.

On top of that, Kitley’s one field goal was in the first quarter. Duke denied her the ball and made every shot a difficult one, and it stunted Tech’s offensive output.

Elizabeth Kitley was solid on the defensive end, and she also grabbed 13 rebounds. But Duke shut her down on offense. (Virginia Tech Athletics)

“We wanted to make catches really difficult,” Lawson said of defending Kitley. “The goal was to make her take a contested shot every time she took one, knowing that she’s good enough to still make those, but just to make things as difficult as possible.”

To go with solid defense, Duke’s offense was rejuvenated in the final 10 minutes. Tech allowed just six made baskets on 24 attempts in the second and third quarters, but the Blue Devils were 7-of-15 in the fourth. Celeste Taylor and Elizabeth Balogun played key roles and finished with eight points apiece.

The loss is the third on the road for Virginia Tech this year after defeats at Clemson and Miami. The program responded with two- and three-game winning streaks after each. Virginia is up next on Sunday in John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, and the Hokies beat the Cavaliers by eight in early January.

“Hard fought game and we just came up on the short end of the stick,” Brooks said. “We’ll regroup and get ready for UVa on Sunday.”

Box Score: Link 

15 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Another frustrating aspect of the mauling was that the ACCN announcers were all for it. During the game and with the other post-game comments they were so excited about Dukes aggressive play. Didn’t care to notice the uneven officiating. Announcer’s commentary during the game didn’t match what we were all seeing. The former Notre Dame Womens BB Coach finds it hard to hide her disdain for Hokie Basketball with halftime and post-game comments. Unbearable.

  2. That game got me prepared for the VT vs Pitt wrestling match tonight. The physicality displayed by Duke with no calls was ridiculous.
    Can’t wait for them to come to Cassell.

  3. I also watched Amore getting shoved out of the lane by Robison using two forearms as though she was a blocking sled. I’ve lever seen anything like it in D1 basketball. Liz can’t stand up straight with so many arms draped over her shoulders. Unwatchable

  4. VT got no calls at Cameron Indoor Stadium – inconceivable. I have watched some of the women’s B1G games and they really are like a MMA event.

  5. Game out of control. Refs are bad across the board. WV/TT the other night had about 50 fouls in the game. Street ball at it’s finest!

  6. Game out of control. Refs are bad across the board. WV/TT the other night had about 50 fouls in the game. Street ball at it’s finest!

  7. Why is the women’s game this physical? It’s hard to watch a lot of the games because they let them play rugby rules basketball. This was more out of hand than my middle-schoolers game between two teams that had never even played an organized/officiated game of basketball before.

    1. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently. Some would say that it has to do with a lower tier of officials, but I’m not sure that is the only answer. Personally, I think it might be intentional. Women’s basketball seems to be in a strange era. I think it is an effort to make the game “more appealing” to fans of the men’s game. I think both are becoming unwatchable. There are so many disputable calls and missed calls that it has to say – “did the better team win?”

      1. I will add to this Kenny Brook’s postgame comment:

        “And if this is the way that Liz is going to be [defended] … This is a little bit of frustration from me, and … it doesn’t stem from just tonight. I’ve been watching it for 10 straight [ACC] games. And the level of physicality, if that’s the way that it’s going to be able to be throughout, hell, I probably will implore her to go pro.”

        1. Ouch, that’s some brutal honesty right there.
          I often question whether I want my daughter to play the sport.

        2. From this Brooks quote I think that suggests that she may be considering coming back for another year. I hope she does.

          Kitley is a talented player with great fundamentals. But I see her as more of a finesse player than an athletic one. I do not think she has the quickness or strength or creativity to be a starter in the WNBA. She is almost always the tallest player on the court now. It won’t be that way in the WNBA. You saw her Duke opponent who was shorter than her. She made maneuvers and took one-handed shots to get around Kitley and was able to score. I don’t see that flexibility from Kitley. She has a few shots that she makes a high % of. But, if she can’t take those shots in a normal rhythm because her defender is heavier or quicker she seems to struggle. And it’s not just EK. Our team struggles against quickness and physicality. We often overcome that because we have greater shooters and move the ball well. But, on defense it seems that our guards are vulnerable to being beat to the basket.

  8. Kitley will have to start wearing a Kevlar vest from now on – as the refs continue to let the games get out of control. The refs have no reference as to what ‘let’em play’ means. This leads to the players to keep pushing the limits. Kenny Brooks deserves some kind of medal for not getting a slew of technicals. I got two just watching on TV.

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