January 18, 2007

Box Score

VT 74, WF 34

 

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. - It's safe to say that the city of Winston-Salem has had its fill of the Virginia Tech Hokies. The women's basketball team cruised to a 74-34 victory Thursday night at Wake Forest that completed a season-sweep of the Deacons, and improved to 12-8, 2-3 in the ACC.

The 34 points given up by the Hokies is the fewest they've ever allowed in an ACC game, beating the previous mark of 42 against, fittingly, Wake Forest on Feb. 26, 2006. It also ties the second-fewest points allowed in the history of the program, narrowly missing the 33 scored by Winston-Salem State earlier this season.

Tech's trio of seniors led the way as Kirby Copeland (Morrow, Ga.) paced a balanced Hokie charge with 15 points, and Britney Anderson (Blacksburg, Va.) dished out a career-high six assists. Nare Diawara (Bamako, Mali), who had a career-high 14 rebounds in the Jan. 2 game against the Deacons, followed up with a game-high 12 boards on Thursday. Every Hokie that dressed for the game tallied at least a point.

Tech dominated on the glass, out-rebounding Wake Forest 50-32 and scoring 36 points in the paint to Wake's 18. The Hokies also played efficiently, recording 18 assists to just 14 turnovers.

"We played absolutely unbelievable defense," Tech head coach Beth Dunkenberger said. "It was an overall great team effort. We can't look at the roster and say we had any one star."

The Hokies never trailed in the contest, going wire-to-wire for the win. Tech wasted no time building its lead, as the streaky Copeland kicked off the game with her own 7-0 run. Wake's Yolanda Lavender then hit back-to-back three-pointers, but Tech answered right back with 13-4 run to make it 20-10 by the nine-minute mark of the first half.

Wake (8-10, 0-5 ACC) would cut the lead to six points on two occasions within the next seven minutes, but that's when the Hokies embarked on a 19-0 run that spanned the intermission and 9:19 overall. By the time Alex Tchangoue ended the Deacons' drought with 12:02 remaining in the game, it was 48-24 in favor of the Hokies, and Tech was well on its way to its fourth-straight win in the series.

Tech wouldn't let up until the final buzzer, eventually building a final margin of 40 points, which was the largest in victory since a 45-point win over Miami in 2005. The Hokies outscored Wake Forest 41-12 in the second half.

Wake Forest shot just 27.3 percent for the game, and had no player score more than six points. Tchangoue and Lavender each had six, while Courteney Morris grabbed six rebounds.

Tech's next game comes at rival Virginia on Monday at 7 p.m.