Box Score

VT 103, High Point 64

 

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The Virginia Tech women's basketball team opened its 2007-08 season in style on Sunday afternoon, racking up an impressive 103-64 victory over the High Point Panthers at Cassell Coliseum in front of 2,609 fans.

It was the 12^th time that the Hokies (1-0) had ever gone over the 100-point plateau, and they were just two points shy of the Cassell Coliseum record of 105 points set against Southern Mississippi on Dec. 28^th, 2004. It was the fifth-highest point total in the history of the program.

"I thought that was an excellent team effort," Tech head coach Beth Dunkenberger said after the game. "It was a great 40-minute effort and a great defensive effort."

Every Hokie got into the game and all but one scored in the 39-point win, as numerous career highs were recorded. Brittany Cook (Narrows, Va.) led the way by tying her personal best with 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting, including a 3-of-3 performance from 3-point land. Utahya Drye (Durham, N.C.) tallied a career-high 15 points to go with seven rebounds, and Eleanor Brentnall (Melbourne, Australia) turned in nine points for the best mark of her career. Freshman Andrea Barbour (Charlottesville, Va.) netted 18 points in her collegiate debut.

The story of the game was the Hokies' run-and-gun style of play, which they employed from the opening tip right until the final buzzer, recording 30 fast-break points and 39 points off of turnovers.

"It was a lot of fun," Cook said in regards to the up-and-down game that the Hokies dictated. "We let our defense create our offense, and we put the pressure on them early. We wanted to set the tone and keep it going throughout the whole game, and as you can see, we got a lot of fast break points from just running and finding the open person."

The visiting Panthers (1-1) hit five of their first seven shots to jump out to an 11-5 lead just over two and half minutes into the game, but it was then that the Hokies unleashed their fast-break flurry, going on an 8-0 run to claim a 13-11 advantage at 15:42. Tech bettered High Point's efficiency in the fast-paced early going, converting seven of its first eight attempts en route to a blistering 63.6 percent from the field in the opening period.

Though they wouldn't lead again in the contest, the pesky Panthers hung around for a while longer, cutting the lead to 1 at 29-28 on an Amber Manuel layup with 8:44 left in the first. However, the Hokies took control before halftime by outscoring the Panthers 24-11 over the next eight minutes to enjoy a 53-39 intermission advantage. The 53 points were the most scored in a half by the Hokies since they netted 58 in the first half in the 105-40 win over Southern Miss in 2004.

Unfortunately for the Panthers, Tech would nearly equal that effort in the second half, scoring another 50 while limiting High Point to 25. The Hokies forced 24 turnovers in the game, and committed just 11 despite the high speed at which they played.

With the win, Tech has now won 14 of its last 16 season openers, and 15 of its last 16 home openers.

The Hokies return to action on Wednesday at Cassell with a 7 p.m. tip against Winston-Salem State.