Hokies Bounce Back, Complete Season Sweep Over Blue Devils

By Ryan Wilkes

Staff Writer

January 14, 2022

Early in the fourth quarter, the Hokies and the Blue Devils, knotted up at 48, both looked for the last momentum shift to power them to a win. The last punch came in the form of a go-ahead 3-pointer from Aisha Sheppard to give Virginia Tech a 51-48 lead.

The Hokies wouldn’t surrender the lead again.

Virginia Tech (12-4, 4-1 Atlantic Coast) willed its way to a victory and the season sweep, the first in program history, over No. 16 Duke (11-3, 2-2 ACC), 65-54, in Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Elizabeth Kitley led the way with 19 points for the Hokies, but a slew of contributors made their presence felt late. After a tough game against UNC and a rough first half, Sheppard didn’t shy away from letting it fly. The fifth-year guard added 13 points, including two key 3 pointers in the fourth quarter.

“It’s just the confidence that my teammates and coaching staff have put in me,” Sheppard said. “It’s been a bit of a struggle obviously, but knowing that my coaches and teammates think the next one is always going to go in gives me a lot of confidence to keep shooting.”

After missing the previous matchup against her former team, Azana Baines grabbed 16 rebounds for the Hokies, setting a career-high.

Taking down a ranked Blue Devils twice in one season has been no easy feat for the Hokies, but focusing on what they can control has.

“I think it’s our focus,” said Sheppard. “A lot of what happens is more so about us than the other team. I think that when we’re focused and locked in, we’re really hard to guard and it’s hard to score on us. It’s not really a matchup thing, it’s more so us and how we prepare for games.

Following a 25-point loss at the hands of the Tar Heels, the offense came a lot easier to Sheppard and the Hokies in the win against the Blue Devils. Nothing different from a game plan perspective for Tech, things just clicked.

“I think it was night and day,” said Sheppard in reference to the Hokies’ offensive attack. “Obviously UNC was a letdown and we came out and we did the things that we’ve always worked on.”

Without two starters in second-leading scorer Celeste Taylor and Lexi Gordon, Duke was shorthanded coming into the matchup.

“They’re big players and big parts of our team,” said Blue Devils guard Miela Goodchild. “We all have roles on this team and it’s just about everyone bringing the best foot forward and doing what they can to help the team.”

Similar to the first matchup against the Hokies, Elizabeth Balogun was the offensive spark for the Blue Devils, leading the way with 15 points.

After leading at halftime 32-25, the Blue Devils were outscored 40-22 in the second half as nothing seemed to be going right on either side of the floor.

“We played pretty well in the first half,” Duke head coach Kara Lawson said. “I just thought in the second half we got a little loose defensively and they capitalized.”

Scoring only 22 points in the second half, the Blue Devils just weren’t able to execute their offense well enough to overpower the Hokies’ late run.

“It’s just execution,” Lawson said. “I thought we resorted to too much one-on-one late and we needed to do what we were doing for the first three quarters and play together.”

Following the loss, the Blue Devils head to Raleigh for a clash against in-state rival No. 4 NC State Sunday afternoon with a big opportunity to get a top-5 win.

The Hokies return to Blacksburg, looking to improve on their impressive ACC start in a matchup against Clemson on Sunday afternoon.