Virginia Tech bounced back from their bitter trip down south to the Bayou, drowning the Long Island Sharks 98-50 inside Cassell Coliseum Wednesday evening.
“It’s a good win for us at this stage of the year. We’re trying to stack games and stack good opportunities and good performances,” Kenny Books said postgame. “We challenged a lot of kids throughout the week, and I thought we got a lot of good responses.”
The Hokies came into this contest favored by a whopping 52.5 point margin, probably the largest point spread I’ve seen for a women’s college basketball game. Despite LIU covering that lofty spread, Tech performed well across the board in their 48-point win that carried them to 6-2 on the season.
While the Sharks stayed in the fight with the Hokies for the first five minutes, the game soon got out of hand when Tech went on a 13-2 run in the final four minutes of the first quarter to take a 14-point that wouldn’t come close to being relinquished.
Cayla King led the Hokies in scoring with 21 points, her third highest point outing of her career and nailed seven threes, two away from tying her career best of nine. Tech needed a big outing from King as the graduate guard mustered up just three points last time out against LSU.
“I was definitely hunting my shots more, against LSU I was waiting for them to come to me but this game I was looking for it. For us to play well, I have to keep shooting even if I’m not having the best shooting game.” Cayla King said postgame.
While King was the go to scorer of the night, Tech’s All-American point guard Georgia Amoore was the distributor of more than just a few delightful dimes. Amoore finished the night with 14 assists, two away from tying her career-high of 16 that she set against Houston Christian back in November.
“They play me as a shooter, I’ve been missing a bit but I still have the aggressive mentality. Tonight, the opportunities to pass it presented themselves. I’ve matured a lot in that department and I love having girls around me that can hit their shots all the time.” Georgia Amoore said postgame.
Amoore’s playmaking had an effect on the entire team as the Hokies dished out 30 assists as a team, the most in program history for a game that was played at home in Cassell Coliseum. Furthermore, Tech was also dynamite from downtown, knocking down 17 three balls as a team which was also the most in program history for a game in Cassell.
“One of the things I stressed before going out to take the floor was sharing the basketball, playing for each other and making each other better. I thought tonight was a good example of that.” Brooks said.
As a team, the Hokies shot 54% from the field, 48% from long range and forced 19 LIU turnovers on the defensive end. Virginia Tech saw six players reach double figures in scoring. Liz Kitley had her regular stellar outing, the two-time ACC Player of the Year tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds on 7-11 shooting from the floor.
The Hokies also got strong production from Michigan State transfer Matilda Ekh, who scored 13 points off an efficient shooting night. The freshman for the Hokies also stepped up, including 29 combined points from Carys Baker, who was a perfect 7-7 shooting at one point, and Clara Strack. Baker and Strack had the freedom to take the reins a bit and they both took full advantage.
“We will need their production down the line. They’re both very talented and they give us things we need,” Brooks said. “Carys shoots the ball as well as anyone on the team…then one of the things I saw with Clara in the LSU game was the fact that she wasn’t scared. She played hard and aggressive and I liked that.”
Kenny Brooks challenged his team to step up to the plate and they did just that in the Hokies nearly 50-point win. While Tech dropped six spots in the latest AP Top 25 poll, Tech isn’t letting themselves get bogged down by external factors. Rather, the Hokies will let their destiny be written on their own accord.
“We went from going to a two seed in bracketology to a five seed and our two losses are to the number four ranked and number seventh ranked team in the country…we can’t go out there and lose and stay where we are in the rankings. Other teams in the top 10 have a loss or two but how many of them drop six spots,” Brooks said. “It was eye opening for us but in a good way. We have to control what we can control and I like how we responded tonight.”
Up next for Virginia Tech is another home bout in Blacksburg as the Hokies invite their crosstown out of conference foes in the Radford Highlanders into Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies and Highlanders will tip-off at 2 PM this Sunday as Tech looks to gain another out of conference victory.
