December 12, 2001

RADFORD, Va. - Sophomore center Ieva Kublina scored a career-high 22 points to lead five players in double figures as Virginia Tech cruised to a 80-46 victory over the Radford Highlanders Wednesday night at the Dedmon Center on the Radford University campus.

Kublina (Riga, Lativa) scored 18 of her points in the first half and finished the game with 10 rebounds. The effort was the fifth double-double of her career. In the last five games, Kublina is averaging 15.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.0 steals.

Davina Simmions (So., Winston-Salem, N.C.) came off the bench to score 11 points followed by Nicole Jones (Sr., Vienna, Va.), Chrystal Starling (Jr., Syracuse, N.Y.) and Rayna DuBose (Fr., Columbia, Md.) with 10 points each.

Tech (6-2) jumped out to 17-6 lead in the first ten minutes of the game before Radford (2-7) put together a 9-2 run to close the gap to 19-15 with 7:15 left in the half. From that point on it was all Hokies as Tech went on a 19-4 spurt the rest of the half to lead 38-17 at intermission. The Hokies limited the Highlanders to 17.2 percent (5-29) from the field in the half.

The Hokies ended any doubt as to the outcome with a 16-5 outburst to open the second half to build a 54-22 lead. Tech later had an 11-1 run which gave the Hokies their largest lead of the night at 65-27.

Radford shot only 27.3 percent for the game marking the second consecutive game that Tech has held an opponent under 30 percent from the floor. The Hokies limited Liberty to 25.5 percent in Saturday's 56-40 victory.

Tech will take a few days off for exams before finally concluding the seven-game road swing with a Dec. 21 contest at James Madison. Game time is set for 7 p.m. The Hokies return to Cassell Coliseum on Dec. 28 to face Gardner-Webb in the Lady Luck Classic.