March 16, 2002

Virginia Tech head coach Bonnie Henrickson promised that her Hokies would be better against the George Washington Colonials after a sloppy first-round WNIT win over UNC Greensboro. It took the better part of the first half, but the Hokies finally delivered on their coach's promise.

Tech moved on to the third round of the WNIT with a 68-52 win over George Washington in front of 2,281 fans at Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies used a dominating performance rebounding the basketball and strong inside play to move on in the WNIT.

Tech pulled down 43 rebounds to GW's 33 boards, grabbing 24 of those on the offensive end.

The Hokies suffered through a rough first half in which they shot just 29.6 percent from the field (8-of-27) and 50 percent (9-of-18) from the free-throw line. The teams began by trading baskets, but with the score 10-9 in favor of the Colonials at the 11:32 mark, junior Emily Lipton was whistled for an offensive foul and then a technical foul when she slammed the ball to the court. The Colonials proceeded to outscore the Hokies 20-9 over the next six minutes.

With the score 30-18 and 5:40 remaining in the first half, the Hokies closed ranks and went on a 9-2 run to close out the frame. Tech trailed 32-27 at halftime and felt fortunate to only be down by that much.

"We went into the locker room thinking that we had a chance to win because we played so poorly in the first half but were still close," Henrickson said.

"I thought the game was lost at halftime," Colonial head coach Joe McKeown said. "We had a chance to be up by 20 and Virginia Tech was on their heels, but we gave up back-to-back 3's at the end of the half and instead of going in up 10 or 12, we were only up by five."

Tech fought to a 41-41 tie at the 12:19 mark of the second half and then exploded on an 11-2 run. The Colonials never threatened again.

Sophomore Ieva Kublina (Riga, Latvia) paced Tech with game-highs of 21 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Erin Gibson (Galax, Va.) also played solid with nine points and eight rebounds in just 18 minutes. Senior Lisa Guarneri (Piscataway, N.J.) may have played the best all-around game with nine points, seven rebounds, seven steals and five assists. Freshman Greeba Outen Barlow led the Colonials with a career-high 18 points, but only one of those points came in the second half.

The Hokies pilfered a season-high 16 steals from the Colonials, and George Washington's 27 turnovers contributed greatly to its downfall. The turnovers stand as the most committed by a Tech opponent this season.

The win also gives Henrickson her fifth straight 20-win season as the coach of the Hokies.

Tech's next game will be on Wednesday, March 20 against the winner of the St. Joseph's-Vermont game. The site and time of Tech's next contest has yet to be determined.