BLACKSBURG, Va.— No matter how strong its defenses were, this Cassell was not immune to a siege.
In front of a packed house at Cassell Coliseum Thursday night, No. 12 Virginia Tech eked out a 61-56 victory against the Blue Devils in a game that went down to the absolute wire. But after a tight first 37 minutes, the Hokies proved why they are hailed as one of the top teams in the country, shutting down the Duke comeback bid and improving to 14-0 at home behind a monster 34-point performance from star center Elizabeth Kitley.
“We fought, tried to dig this one out. It was a tough night for us, certainly we had an opportunity late,” said Duke head coach Kara Lawson. “We made too many miscues, I thought they were much better than we were executing late and that was the difference in the game.”
Entering the final 10 minutes knotted at 42, it felt like either team was due to pull away at any moment. But for the first minutes of the final period, the teams seemed content with exchanging blows, with Oluchi Okananwa and Jadyn Donovan converting second chances for the Blue Devils (16-8, 8-5 in the ACC) and Kitley carrying the load for the home team.
With roughly six minutes to go, Duke began to play with fire, as Okananwa, center Kennedy Brown and Donovan all picked up their fourth fouls and put the Hokies in the bonus the rest of the way. With this disadvantage present, Virginia Tech (21-4, 12-2) smelled blood in the water, upping the pressure on defense and feeding Kitley down low looking to draw fouls. Duke succumbed to this strategy, as the defensive intensity and the raucous crowd were just too much for the young squad to handle, as a Georgia Amoore offensive rebound with two minutes remaining led to a Kitley layup and a 56-53 lead. This ignited the crowd and proved to be the dagger, that Amoore drove in minutes later with a clutch 3-pointer.
When one thinks of Virginia Tech women’s basketball, Amoore and Kitley likely jump to mind, and rightfully so, as the two standouts have been key cogs for the past few years for the Hokies. Duke head coach Kara Lawson obviously made slowing down the explosive Amoore a focal point of the game plan, as the Australian point guard struggled her way to a 4-of-21 night from the field and committed six turnovers while also tallying three assists. Meanwhile, her counterpart down low in Kitley was the clear offensive focus as usual, going to work in the post off of ball screens and knocking down tough layups and fadeaways repeatedly to the excitement of the crowd.
“She’s obviously a very talented player and was very efficient, I mean 13-for-17 is really good, she did a good job making her shots tonight,” Lawson said of Kitley.
Out of the halftime break, the Hokies looked reenergized, with Kitley knocking down an early turnaround jumper and Matilda Ekh hitting a corner three that, parlayed with two Duke turnovers, extended the lead to six. Even with a sellout crowd roaring to their feet at every positive play for the home team, the Blue Devils would not back down, converting timely buckets and continuing to force live ball turnovers that kept them stride for stride in Blacksburg throughout the third period and forced visible frustration from Virginia Tech Kenny Brooks who called a timeout after an Okananwa floater dropped to put Duke up two late in the quarter.
Both teams converted on their first two possessions of the contest as Kitley and Brown got the party started, but going got tough for the Blue Devils from there, as the next five possessions came up empty, allowing the Hokies to build an early 9-4 lead behind eight points in the paint. Ashlon Jackson cut it to two at the first media timeout after a stepback three.
Despite committing five fouls and giving up multiple offensive rebounds in the first quarter, Duke found itself in a one-point game after the first period thanks to a Reigan Richardson three just prior to the buzzer.
Jackson was the offensive engine for Lawson’s squad, knocking down five of her first seven shots, including two 3-pointers that resulted from the Hokies going under ball screens and allowing the China, Texas, native to let it fly. However, the real story of the first half was the always-stout Duke defense, which held Virginia Tech 0-for-6 from downtown to begin the game, enabling Lawson’s group to maintain a slight lead.
Even when a team has an excellent defense, it must still knock down a solid percentage of its shots if it wants to take down a ranked team in one of the toughest arenas in the conference. The Blue Devils lost their way in that department midway through the second quarter. Amid a nearly five-minute stretch for Duke where it did not make a shot from the floor, the Hokies pulled themselves back in front thanks to their first 3-pointer of the game and an outstanding performance from Kitley, who had 16 points at the break. Kitley was also instrumental in shutting down the Blue Devil offense, giving freshman Delaney Thomas all she could handle with Brown and Camilla Emsbo on the bench with two fouls apiece.
“You want your defense on the road to give you a chance, basically is what you want and I thought our defense was solid enough to give us a chance,” Lawson said.
With the shots not falling at times, Duke had to find alternative ways to get points on the board, and this came from hustle plays on both ends of the floor that resulted in free-throw attempts, of which Duke was 13-of-20 for the game. As has become customary at this point, Okananwa was one of the driving forces behind this effort, grabbing five rebounds through two quarters, one of which resulted in a kick-out for a Jackson three.
The Blue Devils will continue a tough stretch of the schedule when they take on Notre Dame Monday at home.
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