February 24, 2001

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (2-24-01) -- The Virginia Tech women's basketball team used a tremendous performance at the free throw line and a stellar effort from Tere Williams to hold off a furious Seton Hall rally and defeat the Pirates 52-46 Saturday at Walsh Gym. The victory puts the Hokies in the driver's seat to claim the No. 4 seed in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament and with it a first round bye in the 12-team event.

Tech (19-7, 10-5) connected on 26-of-30 free throws to pick up the key road victory. The Hokies shot only 39.4 percent from the field and only 27.8 percent in the second half which allowed the Pirates to overcome a 14-point Tech lead at the half.

Seton Hall (16-10, 9-6) trailed 30-16 at the half after being limited to only 19.2 percent (5-26) from the field by the tenacious Hokie defense. However, the Pirates heated up in the second half while Tech could not buy a basket. The Hokies scored only six points over a span of 13:52 while the Pirates put together a 20-6 run to knot the game at 36-36 with 7:02 left in the contest.

Tech responded with a 6-0 spurt to regain control and then hit 10-of-12 free throws in the final 5:21 to seal the win. Tere Williams, who was listed as doubtful due to an MCL strain in her left knee suffered last Sunday against Boston College, was a surprise starter and responded with 16 points to lead Tech in scoring. Amy Wetzel was the only other Hokie in double figures with 14 points including 8-of-8 from the line.

Seton Hall was led by Arminda Moreno with 13 points followed by Cecilia Lindqvist with 11. The Pirates outshot the Hokies 59-33 and forced 21 Tech turnovers but could not overcome the effort of Williams and the hot free throw shooting. In its last two games, Tech has made 56-of-72 (77.7 percent) free throws.

Tech now needs either a victory Tuesday night in its regular season finale at St. John's or a Villanova loss at Miami to secure the No. 4 seed in the BIG EAST tournament which begins on Saturday, March 3 in Storrs, Conn. If they clinch the No. 4 seeding, Tech would not play until Sunday at noon against the winner of the No. 5 vs. No. 12 game which will be played Saturday at noon. Complete pairings will be released by the BIG EAST Conference office on Tuesday night following completion of that night's action. Brackets and tournament information can be obtained at www.bigeast.org.

The Hokies conclude the regular season Tuesday in a 7:30 p.m. game at St. John's. The Red Storm (8-17, 3-11) were trounced 118-44 on Friday night at No. 3 Connecticut. A Tech victory would give the Hokies their fourth consecutive 20-win season under head coach Bonnie Henrickson.