March 22, 2003

West Lafayette, Ind. - Freshman point guard Carrie Mason hit a running layup with 1.1 seconds remaining to help the No. 7-seeded Virginia Tech women's basketball team advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament over No. 10-seeded Georgia Tech 61-59. The Hokies improved to 22-9 on the year with the win while Georgia Tech concluded its season 20-11.

The Hokies had just watched as the Yellow Jackets went on a 6-0 run to tie the score at 59 with 16.9 seconds remaining in the game. Fallon Stokes capped the mini-run with a steal and layup to knot the score. After a Yellow Jacket foul, Tech inbounded the ball at halfcourt. Mason (Seneca, Pa.) took the ball, crossed over All-ACC first-teamer Alex Stewart and went the distance. Georgia Tech's other All-ACC first-teamer, 6-foot-5 center Sonja Mallory, came over to help out, but Mason put the shot just out of her reach.

"We didn't have anything designed," Mason said. "It was called Create, and we've been working on it for the last couple days. No one stepped up to guard me and fortunately the shot fell."

Stokes missed a 10-foot shot at the buzzer that would've sent the game into overtime.

Mason came out the hero despite not playing one of her better games. She scored just six points and committed five turnovers. But when it mattered, she stepped up.

"This definitely wasn't one of my better games, but you've got to persevere and I was able to put the first 39 minutes and 50-some seconds behind me," Mason said.

The Hokies claimed the early advantage in this game, jumping out to a 24-14 lead after 13 minutes of play. They hit 11 of their first 18 shots and were 9-of-10 from inside the 3-point line with seven minutes remaining in the half. But the Hokies went a little cold, which allowed the Yellow Jackets to get into their transition game. Georgia Tech closed out the half on a 14-5 run to only trail 29-28 at the break.

The Yellow Jackets scored the first six points of the second half, bringing the run total to 20-5. The Yellow Jackets eventually stretched the lead to six points at 47-41, but the Hokies scored the next six to tie the game. Then with the Yellow Jackets leading 53-49, the Hokies went on a 10-0 run, punctuated by 3-pointers by Ieva Kublina (Riga, Latvia) and Chrystal Starling (Syracuse, NY). That set the stage for Georgia Tech's run and Mason's heroics.

Kublina led the Hokies with 18 points while Starling bagged 15. No other Hokie scored more than six, but even those were big contributions. Emily Lipton (Crofton, Md.) scored six points on two 3-pointers in the first 3:06 of the game, which helped set the tone. Freshman Kerri Gardin (Morganton, NC) went 3-for-3 from the field and came up with some big rebounds down the stretch.

"Our start, for Emily Lipton to come out and knock down some uncontested shots was big, otherwise we might've been down 10 at half," head coach Bonnie Henrickson.

Georgia Tech head coach Agnus Berenato agreed.

"The critical thing for us was Emily Lipton hitting those two early 3's," she said. "Everyone looks at the last play, but those two were just as big."

Stokes led all scorers with 25 points and Stewart added 10. Mallory, who came in averaging over 16 points a game, managed just eight against the Hokies' deep post.

The Hokies now move on to play No. 2 Purdue at 7pm on Monday, March 24.

The Hokies have now won their past five opening round games in the NCAA Tournament.