It’s not easy going into the ACC Tournament without your starting center. It’s even harder when your starting center is a three-time ACC Player of the Year and the leading scorer in program history. But, that was the situation Virginia Tech was in following Elizabeth Kitley’s knee injury that she suffered in the third quarter of their regular season finale versus Virginia.
For this reason, the Hokies were forced to rely on players in bigger roles than they’ve had to rely on all season, in one of their biggest games of the year up to this point. And while the result wasn’t perfect, and sometimes was flat out ugly, the ACC regular season champs and defending ACC Tournament champs made enough timely plays to move on to the semifinals, beating Miami 55-47.
Kenny Brooks acknowledged the imperfection of the game from the Hokies afterwards.
“Our kids didn’t play great, and we obviously know that we can play better," Brooks said.
The Hokies, known as a dangerous offensive team, shot less than 34% from the field and 20% from three-point range on their way to scoring just 55 points, less than they have scored in a month and a half. Yet, despite all of this, they beat a soon to be NCAA tournament team.
“In March, at this time of year, it’s about surviving and advancing. We did that," Brooks said.
Sometimes the ability to win games even when they don’t play out how you would hope is what makes a good team great. And Virginia Tech showed that they can do that this afternoon.
While the Hokies' offensive showing was far from their best, their defense, which has been a major area of improvement this season from last year's Final Four team, needs to be given a lot of credit.
For almost the entire game, Kenny Brooks opted for a 2-3 zone, a defensive scheme he’s used at times throughout the season, but rarely as consistently as he did tonight. While Miami has many capable shooters, they are significantly more efficient on two point attempts (49%) than three point attempts (33%), and the Hokies zone forced them to take some low percentage three-pointers and deep mid-range jumpers, to keep Miami away from what they do best.
Similarly, it allowed the Hokies defenders to use their positional defensive skills, rather than trying to defend generally faster opponents one on one.
Perhaps even more impressively, Virginia Tech won the rebounding battle, which was Kenny Brooks’ key going into the game.
“We talked about rebounding, rebounding the basketball," Brooks said.
Attacking the defensive glass is a weakness for most teams that run a zone, since it is harder to find someone to box out, when there are no matchups. When Tech is at their best, they've been a strong rebounding team.
“We had a 10 game winning streak, and in every one of those games we out-rebounded our opponent. The two losses that we had right at the end of the year we got out-rebounded," Brooks said.
In this game, the Hokies rebounded 27 of Miami’s 38 missed shots, which was more than enough to get the win.
Part of the reason the Hokies were able to win the rebounding battle comes down to the impressive job Clara Strack and Rose Micheaux did at replacing arguably the best center in the country. Micheaux finished with just two points, two rebounds, and two assists. However, she got her first minutes in a couple of months (and first start since early in the season), and set the tone with an offensive rebound and putback bucket to start the game.
Meanwhile, Clara Strack was the only player besides Georgia Amoore to get into double figures, finishing with 10 points, five rebounds, and two blocks. Kenny Brooks had nothing but compliments for both of them.
“They did a really good job. Rose has been professional all year long…waiting for her opportunity, and I thought today was that opportunity," Brooks said. "Clara…she just worked…she’s not scared of the moment.”
Both of these players are going to be essential to another run during the ACC Tournament with this experience being valuable for Strack as a freshman and important for Micheaux to knock off the rust that comes when you haven't played since late January.
However, the scoring burden once again fell onto Georgia Amoore’s shoulders in Kitley’s absence, and to no one’s surprise, she came through in the big moments. Despite a cold start to the game, Amoore finished with nearly half of the Hokies points, dropping 27 on 8-19 from the field and 10-12 from the charity stripe. The Hokies are going to go as far into the ACC Tournament as Amoore brings them, and today’s game was a good start for the First Team All-ACC performer.
Virginia Tech has a quick turnaround, facing Notre Dame at noon tomorrow in the ACC Tournament Semifinal. With a 71-58 loss at Notre Dame a week ago fresh in the minds of the players, the Hokies have an opportunity to steal the luck of the Irish in a revenge game, this time on a neutral court, and get back to the ACC Tournament Championship game.
