March 8, 2003

Piscataway, N.J. - An 18-0 first half run and a pair of unlikely heroes in true freshman Dawn Chriss and flu-stricken senior Chrystal Starling helped the Virginia Tech women's basketball team stave off a furious second half rally by West Virginia in the first round of the BIG EAST tournament in Piscataway N.J. Tech won 66-60 and improved to 20-8 on the season, while West Virginia fell to 15-13.

Tech trailed 7-5 early after a Janell Dunlap steal and layup gave the Mountaineers the lead. But a Carrie Mason (Seneca, Pa.) jumper tied the score and started an avalanche of Hokie offense. The Hokies knocked down four shots in a row and 7-of-11 in the run to take a 23-7 lead. Tech held a 38-21 advantage at halftime and scored the first basket of the second half to provide its largest lead of the game

At that point, things started falling apart for Tech. West Virginia went on a 19-6 run in which it hit seven shots in a row and closed the gap to 51-48 with 7:50 to go. But Starling (Syracuse, NY), who started the game but had been on the bench since the early parts of the first half with her illness, re-entered the game at that point and, along with Chriss (Hillcrest Heights, Md.), took over.

The duo combined to score Tech's next 11 points, oftentimes on assists to each other. Starling found Chriss twice with nice passes underneath the basket and Chriss returned the favor with a cross-court pass off of which Starling knocked down the decisive 3-pointer. That mini-run gave the Hokies a 10-point lead with 3:30 to go.

"I feel better now that we won," Starling said. "I told Bonnie that if she needed me I was ready to go, and I'm just glad that she had faith to put me in and my teammates had faith to give me the ball when I felt that awful."

All-BIG EAST first-teamer Ieva Kublina (Riga, Latvia) led the Hokies with 14 points, while Chriss scored a career high 13. Starling tallied 11, mostly in the second half, while Erin Gibson (Galax, Va.) grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds to go along with seven points.

For West Virginia, Kate Bulger led the team with 17 points and Yolanda Paige totaled 16.

With Tech's third victory of the season over WVU, the Hokies also reached the 20-win plateau for the sixth straight season, all under head coach Bonnie Henrickson.

The Hokies advance to play the No. 4 seed, Boston College, at noon tomorrow. The Eagles won the only meeting between the two this season, 65-47, at Chestnut Hill, Ma.