December 29, 2005

Box Score

Virginia Tech 76, TAMCC 64

 

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech women's basketball team remained undefeated on the season and won its eighth consecutive Lady Luck Classic with a hard-fought 76-64 victory over the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders. The Hokies now stand at 12-0 on the season, while the Islanders fell to 6-6.

This championship contest was truly a see-saw affair as neither team succeeded in claiming a decisive advantage until late. The Islanders led by as many as six early in the first half, but the Hokies erased that deficit with a 6-0 run. From that point onward - the 10:45 mark of the first half until the 5:41 mark of the second - the game essentially remained a one-possession affair. The Hokies held a brief four-point lead in the second, but other than that, the lead for either team never exceeded three points.

Tech trailed 31-30 at the half, just the second time it trailed at intermission this season. The Hokies took their four-point lead on a Kerri Gardin layup with 14:55 left in the game. At that point, the offenses took over. The Islanders scored on 10 of their next 12 possessions. The Hokies didn't blink, though, scoring on nine of 13 trips. Corpus Christi held a 56-53 advantage with under nine minutes remaining when the Hokies finally made their run. An 11-0 spurt, comprised of six points from Dawn Chriss and five from Nare Diawara, gave Tech a 64-56 lead that it would not relinquish.

"I think we made defensive stops and we also got rebounds," Chriss said of the run. "So we were able to run the floor and that opened up some good shots for us down the stretch."

Four Hokies scored in double figures, paced by 26 points from Chriss, 21 of which came in the second half. Chriss took home the tournament MVP award for her efforts. Diawara scored 11 points while Carrie Mason and Megan Finnerty each tallied 10. Terra Andrews spearheaded the Islander attack with 20 points.

Chriss was the only Hokie on the Lady Luck all-tournament team. Longwood's Ashley Mason, Marshall's KaShawna Curry, and Corpus Christi's Andrews and Kirbria Lewis rounded out the team.

The 12-0 start is the second-best in the program's history, trailing only the 1998-99 squad that began the season 18-0.

The Hokies now prepare to embark on the ACC portion of their schedule. They will take on the N.C. State Wolfpack in Raleigh on Jan. 2. The game will tip off at 7 p.m.