March 2, 2002

Virginia Tech's stay at the BIG EAST Tournament was cut short when the host team and No. 11 seed, Rutgers, upset the sixth-seeded Hokies 44-43 in front of 3,650 fans at the Louis Brown Center in Piscataway, N.J.

The loss was Tech's seventh straight on the road and leaves the team's status with the NCAA Tournament questionable.

The low-scoring, defensive affair came down to the final minutes Sarah Hicks hit two free throws to give the Hokies a 38-36 lead with just over five minutes to play. But with the score tied at 38-38, Tech committed two offensive fouls away from the ball on its next two possessions.

Despite the squandered opportunities, Tech took a 40-38 lead on a Ieva Kublina layup, only to see the Scarlet Knights go on a 6-0 run. Sophomore point guard Nikki Jett led the charge, scoring eight of the team's final 11 points. Jett was once a recruit of Virginia Tech, but opted for Rutgers instead. On this night she burned the Hokies once again with a game-high 15 points.

"That's a young lady who, on the perimeter, can make a play off the dribble and that's why we recruited her," Henrickson said. "She's one of the kids who is really unselfish and will make a pass off of the dribble."

Both teams struggled in the first half, but the Hokies suffered through a particularly abysmal stretch in the final 11 minutes. Tech ran off seven unanswered points to claim a 15-8 lead at the 11:02 mark, but followed that up by going pointless over the next nine minutes. Rutgers took advantage by finishing out the half on a 12-2 run. Amazingly, Tech only attempted five shots in the final 11 minutes of the half while committing eight turnovers.

It was no coincidence that Tech's cold spell came on shortly after junior Chrystal Starling left the floor with her second foul. In just seven minutes of action, Starling led the Hokies at halftime with seven points and appeared on track for a big night, but her second foul kept her sidelined for the rest of the half.

The Hokies opened the second half with an 8-0 run to take a 25-22 lead, but a Jett 3-pointer knotted the score and neither team held more than a three point lead until Rutgers went up 44-40. A Hicks 3-pointer with 0.4 seconds left provided the final score.

Kublina led the Hokies with 14 points and Starling chipped in 13 for the cause. Lisa Guarneri, playing in front of her hometown crowd, added nine points in the losing effort.

Now with Tech on the bubble, the Hokies will have to wait and hope. They have in their favor quality wins over Old Dominion, Boston College and Clemson and gave No. 1-ranked Connecticut its biggest scare of the season in a 59-50 loss.

"I think we deserve a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament," Henrickson said. "We play in a quality conference and have quality wins so whether we're one of the last team's in or the last team in, I think we deserve to be in."