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Elizabeth Kitley Makes History as #12 Virginia Tech Beats Wake Forest 74-57

Liz Kitley 1 VT WF 2023 From VT
Ryan Duvall | @RyanGDuvall
Writer/Baseball Beat Reporter

As the ball came bouncing off the rim from an errant Ashley Owusu layup, senior center Elizabeth Kitley did what she does best. Kitley grabbed the ball and went right back up with it, fighting through contact, and putting her name in the Virginia Tech record books.

With the basket, Kitley became the Hokies all time leading shot maker with 1,695 made field goals and counting. However, this would produce two of her team leading 28 points in a 74-57 win over Wake Forest (11-9, 2-7) that was a lot closer than the final score may have shown.

The first two quarters were great for #12 Virginia Tech (16-3, 6-3), with Kitley scoring ten in the first to put the Hokies up 14-10. They followed this up with an even better second quarter, in which Tech got three 3-pointers from junior guard Georgia Amoore, taking a 35-20 lead into halftime.

In addition to Kitley’s milestone, Amoore hit her own career record, becoming VT’s all time leader in ACC assists, which is very impressive, considering the Australian native still has 2.5 years of eligibility remaining.

Head coach Kenny Brooks commended on both postgame with this to say on Liz Kitley.

“She’s a student of the game, she wants to learn, she wants to get better and you couple that with the fact that all she wants to do is win,” Brooks said.

The third quarter would not go the Hokies' way, as Jewel Spear lit Tech up for 16 of her 27 points in the third. The Wake Forest zone paired with physical double teams on Kitley stifled the Tech offense for most of the period.

But momentum really shifted towards Wake when a string of questionable foul calls led to Brooks making his frustration clear to the referee crew, ultimately being issued a technical foul.

Both Brooks and Amoore noted their dismay with the call, which Brooks claimed may have been his “third technical foul” in his entire coaching career.

“That’s really unlike him, and to be fair, it wasn’t something that should have been teched. He was trying to defend us,” said Amoore.

After the third quarter, Wake had taken a 15-point halftime deficit, and turned it into a three point game, at 53-50 with the Hokies still on top.

But Virginia Tech was not finished. They decided to switch their emphasis from being the hunted, like they had been at the beginning of ACC play, to being the hunters.

And Taylor Soule must have taken that personally. The fifth year transfer from Boston College was all over the court in the fourth, helping the Hokies put the Demon Deacons away with a 21-7 fourth quarter.

Soule would end the game with 16 points, joining Kitley and Amoore (17) in double-figures.

This Hokies team, maybe even more so than last year’s team, has the versatility to go deep in March, and they know it.

“I think it just goes with our experience…this is Kayana Traylor’s fifth year, Soule was the leading scorer at Boston College, (Traylor) was the leading scorer at Purdue so we all come with that experience of scoring…it really could be anyone, we really just have (numerous) offensive weapons,” Kitley said regarding the team’s ability to rely on almost anyone for points.

That doesn't even include former All-American Ashley Owusu, who came off the bench today in her second game back from injury having 4 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assist in 15 minutes.

Point is, the Hokies are deep, and have the talent to win the ACC, but still have to face the conference’s leaders including a tough road test at #13 Duke this Thursday.

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