#7 Virginia Tech Hokies Women’s Basketball Goes to Boston College and Nabs Their First ACC ‘W’: 73-58

Dec 8, 2022 - 2:50 AM

It was a big Virginia Tech double header for Wednesday night on the ACC Network. The opening act was the Women’s basketball team on the road again, this time to Boston to open the ACC season. Boston College might have thought it better to have someone else visit. The Hokies walked away with a win, but not without a bruising fight.

The Opening Looked Like a Runaway was Starting

It didn’t look like much of a hard tussle by the end of the first quarter, though. The Hokies had put up 17 points to BC’s single digit 7 and some regrouping on their part became obviously necessary. The game might have had a ten-point difference at the end of the quarter, but it was definitely a defensive contest with some discouraging shot misses by both teams.

The game started off on a weird note with Kayana Traylor being tagged for a foul before a point was put up. The first points came off of a layup by Liz Kitley with and assist by the other big scorer of the night Cayla King. Kitley would score another short jumper and King would drain a 3 to push out to 7 points, and really never managed to get it too much closer. Tech would end up leading from buzzer to buzzer, but it didn’t mean that the Eagles didn’t fight hard.

Tech won the 2nd quarter by 9 points 26-17. But there was already foul trouble happening and Kenny Brooks was mining the bench heavily to keep Traylor from fouling out too soon. By the end of the game Taylor Soule, Traylor, and Kitley were each sporting four fouls, and as easy as the calls were coming all were in danger of being benched at any given time. Brooks would lean heavily on D’asia Greg to get inside and do some power forward work keep both Soule and Traylor on the court for the full game. She even was put in for Kitley, late.

BC Looked Like They’d Get Scary in the 3rd

The lid went on for the Hokies in the 3rd, and shots were just not falling. BC was also pushing to make a few small runs at the basket, and by the end of the quarter had scored 22 to Tech’s 16. That didn’t make up the greater deficit any closer than the 59-46 end to the 3rd quarter. Tech would basically match the Eagles in the 4th with two extra foul shots right at the end from Amoore and a closing jumper from Traylor as a bit of revenge for all the fouls called on her.

It was a Tough Inside Game

Even with the heavy inside work, and the four fouls, Liz Kitley put up a double-double with a team leading 22 points. She shot all of that from inside with no 3-point attempts even tried. Kitley also pulled down 12 rebounds, most defensive, to clear the boards and keep the Eagles from putting stuff back up. Cayla King scored double digits for this game, with 15 of her 16 points coming from deep. She was 5-8 and shot nothing inside except for a free throw. Georgia Amoore played the entire game, again, but her scoring contribution was basically her machine-like accuracy at the charity stripe. She was 4-4 from the foul line, and really only took five shots from the floor and only one from three-point range. Amoore ran the offense, dished off five assists, and grabbed a rebound.

Everyone who played any minutes on the court scored something. Even Clara Ford (a BC transfer) put in a timely bucket for her 2 whole minutes on the court. Kenny Brooks put his core players on the floor and kept them there the entire game.

What’s Up for the Rest of 2022?

It was a solid win against a peer opponent with a winning record. It was an ACC victory and more importantly makes the 7th ranked Hokies 9-0 as they get to come back home for a game against non-conference UNC-Ashville (the 12th), and a huge game against Notre Dame in the Cassell on the 18th. There will be one road game against non-conference High Point in High Point NC on the 21st and a well-deserved Christmas break with a big road game against Clemson on the 29th.

Nothing is a gimme game, but the Hokies are showing that they can win more than one way, and that’s a good thing. 2022 looks like it will end on a real high note as nothing after the 1st of January is anything but ACC opponents util the Ladies’ Beeg Shew...

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GO HOKIES!!!!