HOKIES GET PAST MIAMI 72-64 BEHIND FOUR DOUBLE-DIGIT PERFORMANCES

Jay Winters

March 4, 2021

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The 23,000-seat Greensboro Coliseum was an empty form of its usual self, but the play on its hollowed court was back to its familiar, hectic style.

All 200 of the Hokie faithful that were in attendance, unlike last year, will go home happy for at least the next 24 hours, after Tech pulled out a 72-64 victory over a feisty and desperate Miami squad.

The win was Hokies coach Kenny Brooks’ 100th at Tech, but was something that wasn’t even in the back of his mind.

“Tremendous win for our program,” Brooks said. “So happy for these kids, the fashion that we won it. Obviously, we had a little bit of adversity, but didn’t hang our head, and these are the type of games that allow you to grow as a basketball team.”

The “adversity” that Brooks mentioned could fall under every quarter except the first, as Aisha Sheppard left the game after tweaking her ankle at the end of the first period, leaving the 24-12 score up in the air.

Never faltering, the Hokies truly embraced the “next man up” mentality and stretched the lead to 15 heading into the half behind double-digits from Georgia Amoore and Cayla King.

“The star of the night for me was Georgia Amoore,” Brooks said. “She did a tremendous job of controlling the narrative, controlling the tempo, very effective early and calmed us down late. The kid is growing up right in front of our eyes.”

The third quarter saw shades of the last game against UNC, as Tech also had a 14-point lead but was not able to close it out.

The Hokies stretched the game all the way to twenty points, but as soon as they hit that threshold, Miami started pressing, and junior transfer Destiny Harden made her mark, scoring 13 of her 27 points in the third quarter.

The Hurricanes defense was stifling, sent the Hokies into multiple three-minute scoring droughts and cut the lead to as close as 59-52 in the fourth quarter.

But, just as quickly as Miami pulled within striking distance, junior D’asia Gregg took the game into her own hands seemingly out of nowhere.

“I was just trying to win,” Gregg said. “It doesn’t matter who is having a bad day, because we have a team full of people who can go off any day, and when everybody locks in does what we've got to do, I feel like we’re the best team out there.”

Gregg rose to the occasion, scoring six straight points, including a momentum swinging and-1, on her way to career highs of 13 points and 10 rebounds in her first double double as a Hokie.

The Canes cut the lead back to single digits with just under two minutes to go, but broken presses and defensive stops propelled the Hokies in the end, 72-64.

“The objective is to go 1-0,” Brooks said. “You can say it and talk about it, but these kids believe it. If we focus on 1-0, we give ourselves a great chance to win, and we're really looking forward to this opportunity.”

1-0 is all that matters, and the Hokies will play another day in Greensboro as No. 2 seeded NC State awaits at 6:00 for round three of the season series.