Amoore's 16 Points Leads VT to ACC Quarterfinal in Sheppard's Absence

Chris Hirons

March 5, 2021

GREENSBORO, N.C. — Late in the second quarter, Georgia Amoore dribbled up the floor and stopped near in the middle of the ACC Tournament logo, five feet from the mid-court stripe.

Virginia Tech’s leading scorer Aisha Sheppard sprained her ankle in a 68-63 loss to North Carolina on Sunday. Though it wasn’t known until after Thursday's game, Sheppard didn’t practice all week and again tweaked her ankle early in the second quarter on Thursday, forcing her to miss the rest of the game.

With Sheppard and the training staff tending to her ankle on the sideline, Amoore was given the reigns and dictated the flow of the offense. The freshman heralded a scorer-first mentality for the first time since arriving at Virginia Tech.

It was a foreign state for Amoore and her team, who never had to play longer than a five minute stretch without Sheppard’s calming veteran presence on the court during the regular season.

But there the Australian guard was, running the entire offense in a do-or-die game for nearly three quarters of the night.

As she came to a halt after crossing halfcourt, Amoore motioned for D’asia Gregg to give her a screen to the right at the top of the key. Elizabeth Kitley followed Gregg’s lead and set a second screen near the free throw line. But instead of heading towards the picks, Amoore made a play of her own.

With the ball in her right hand, she unexpectedly crossed over to the left. Three Miami defenders crashed towards her as she drove into paint. She peeked towards the corner closest to Miami’s bench, faked a pass to Azana Baines — who was wide open — and drove to the basket.

Amoore lept towards the hoop and dropped the ball in to score her 10th and final point of the half, extending Virginia Tech’s lead over Miami, 40-22, with 2:44 left in the second period.

“I was playing for [Sheppard] for sure, and I know how bad she wanted to be out there,” Amoore said. “You could see on the sideline the way she was cheering and the way she was in the huddle. I think all of us kind of knew that she would have killed to be out there.”

Amoore’s 16 points on six-for-15 shooting led the way for the No. 7-seeded Hokies in their 72-65 win over the No. 10-seeded Hurricanes on Thursday evening. Virginia Tech advanced to the ACC Tournament quarterfinal against No. 2-seeded NC State thanks to Amoore controlling the flow of the offense for VT — a role that she was somewhat unfamiliar with.

Sure, Amoore was named the team’s starting point guard before the season tipped-off, but she hadn’t been the focal point of the offense all season. Tech usually doesn’t run through her shooting, but on Thursday night it did.

Fresh off being named to the All-ACC Freshman Team, Amoore didn’t sit for a single minute. Head coach Kenny Brooks barked orders to her all evening as the team embraced Amoore’s new role and her ‘next man up’ mentality.

“I thought she did a tremendous job of just controlling the narrative and controlling the tempo,” Brooks said. “[She] made us very effective early and kind of calmed us down late. The kid is growing up right in front of our eyes.”

The Hurricanes battled back from a 70-54 deficit with just over two minutes to play. They went on a 10-1 run for a minute-and-a-half, forcing the Hokie faithful to question whether Virginia Tech would be able to fend off another foe that was on the comeback trail.

Up by seven points and as Miami bricked a jumper with 23 seconds left, Amoore was there to corral the rebound. She was quickly fouled and put on the charity stripe. Two misses could have resulted in a much different outcome.

She missed the first free throw as it rolled around on the rim, but she didn’t let it deter her confidence on the second shot.

With all the confidence in the world, Amoore stood at the line cool, calm and collected as she nailed her second attempt icing the win for Tech.

“She's really calmed us down,” Brooks said. “She's the point guard that I knew she could be.”

In the third quarter, Amoore once again called for Gregg to set a pick at the top of the key to her right.

Again, she faked towards the screen and crossed over to her left. But this time, she was met by a defender near the free throw line. Amoore didn’t panic. Instead, she halted her momentum, spun around on her pivot foot, and looked for a teammate to hand the ball off to.

After finding no one open, Amoore went for the dagger. Miami’s Taylor Mason towered over the five-foot-five Amoore by about four inches. But it didn’t faze her as Amoore leaned back and fired a fadeaway that went through the net, extending the Hokies’ lead to 21.

Amoore finished the game with two fouls and spent most of her time beyond the arc, where she’s most lethal. She knocked down three of her nine treys and found an open teammate when she could, adding five assists to her game totals.

Despite becoming the team’s alpha dog, Amoore said she just worked on staying composed whenever Miami would go on long scoring runs late in the game. Conserving her energy didn’t come across her mind, even though she’s played back-to-back 40-minute games. However, she said that she would try to slow the tempo of the game down to catch her breath.

With Sheppard’s status still up in the air for Friday evening’s game against No. 2-seeded NC State — a team that the Hokies beat in late January — Amoore could be thrust back into the focal point of the offense.

When the bright lights come on against the Wolfpack, a team that the Hokies upset on Jan. 28, Brooks expects Amoore to be ready for the limelight.

“When she got here last year, we knew that she was our future at point guard. We knew it.”