Coming Off History, Sheppard Delivers the Dagger to Propel Virginia Tech over Miami

By Will Locklin

Staff Writer

February 24, 2022

BLACKSBURG — Up by four points with only a minute to go,Virginia Tech was searching for one final bucket to finish off Miami. Who else did it look to but the program’s all time leading scorer Aisha Sheppard.

As she got the handoff from D’Asia Gregg, Miami’s Karla Erjavec continued to hound Sheppard as the shot clock started to wind down. Sheppard dribbled out and waited patiently for Kitley to set a screen at the top of the key.

Once it came, Sheppard saw her opportunity to put the game on ice. She side hopped to her left, wound up and let the basketball fly from her fingertips into the net for the dagger shot.

Sheppard’s 16 points and four 3-pointers were a massive part of No. 23 Virginia Tech’s 70-63 win over Miami (16-11, 9-8 ACC). The Hokies (21-7, 13-4 ACC) earned their 13th ACC win of the season, a first in program history since joining the conference in 2004. Virginia Tech also continued to defend their home ground in Cassell Coliseum by improving to 9-0 against ACC opponents at home.

“Just letting it fly when I’m open,” Sheppard said. “They need me to take those shots and that’s what I try to do to help my teammates out.”

Before the game, Sheppard was honored with a ceremony at mid-court for breaking the all time scoring record in program history. Surrounded by head coach Kenny Brooks and Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, Sheppard received a loud cheer from the Hokie faithful for her incredible feat.

“The raw emotion that just came out of her for that ceremony — she was so appreciative,” Brooks said. “It was five years of an accumulation of everything that’s gone on her so I’m very proud of her for that moment.”

Out of the gate, though, it was a struggle for VT as Miami gave them a tough run throughout. The Hurricanes made it especially tough for Tech on the defensive end. They put on the full-court press to harass ball handlers like Amoore and Sheppard for most of the night. It was the root cause for Virginia Tech’s 10 first half turnovers.

“They want you to play a messy basketball game and we had 18 turnovers. A lot of them were the live ball turnovers,” Brooks said. “It’s something we’ll work on.”

Even with the high number of turnovers in the first two-and-a-half quarters, the Hokies were able to secure the ball better the rest of the way. They coughed the ball up twice in the last 15 minutes of play.

“It’s hard to press for 40 minutes and as the game wears on you get more fatigued so that pressure gets a bit different,” Brooks said. “We were more cognizant of what we wanted to do and where we wanted to get it. We handled the pressure a lot better.”

Foul trouble was another area where Virginia Tech found itself in a hole as Amoore and Kitley finished with four fouls. Amoore picked up her third foul early on into the third quarter.

“We look to [Georgia] to handle the ball more, that’s our point guard but when things happen we have to adjust,” Sheppard said. “I think everybody did a great job of adjusting on the fly.”

Another key aspect to the Hokies second half surge after going down 30-28 in the first half was getting to the free throw line. Virginia Tech went to the line once in the first half and went 1-of-2 from the line. In the second half, it reached the charity stripe eight times and knocked down 14-of-16.

“We got early fouls on them in the 4th quarter so we knew we were in the bonus for the rest of the way,” Kitley said. “So we did make a point of emphasis to attack and get to the line.”

Kitley had herself a day despite racking up four fouls and three turnovers. She tallied a team-high 18 points and nabbed 12 rebounds. Kitley shot 6-of-14 from the field and nailed all six of her free throws. That double-double puts herself at 14 for the season and continues her case as a strong ACC Player of the Year candidate.

“I didn’t think coming in my freshman year that would even be possible but I’m focused on the team stuff.” Kitley said.

Aisha Sheppard certainly backs up Kitley’s ACC Women’s Basketball Player of the Year campaign.

“Liz is a dog and she’s our ACC Player of the Year,” Sheppard said. “She is the ACC Player of the Year, look at the numbers. She’s a dog.”

Miami’s Kelsey Marshall was the game's leading scorer with 21 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the floor and 3-of-6 from deep. The Hurricanes came out and shot it particularly well in the third quarter as they shot 58% and led for most of the quarter.

However, they gave up the lead by sending Tech to the free throw line 10 times and the Hokies made them pay by going 9-of-10. The glass was another key for the win for Virginia Tech, as it out rebounded Miami 37-30 for the game.

Up next for Virginia Tech, a rematch against No. 3 NC State in Blacksburg. The Hurricanes will travel back home to finish out the regular season and take on the Clemson Tigers.

“You talk about [VT and NC State] that are very well matched, it’s a rivalry,” Brooks said. “It’s a healthy rivalry. There’s a lot of respect between the two programs. … They know this is a tough place to play.”