No. 13 Hokies Take Down Louisville For First Time Since 1995, 81-79

By Jack Brizendine

Staff Writer

January 12, 2023

Virginia Tech's Taylor Soule led the Hokies with 24 points en route to the team's first win over Louisville since 1995. (Virginia Tech Athletics)

BLACKSBURG — Down one point with under three minutes to play, No. 13 Virginia Tech needed a spark.

Despite shooting just 22% from three up to that point in the game, the Hokies kept putting up shots from deep — and it paid off.

Following a huge trey from Kayana Traylor to cut VT’’s deficit to a single point, Georgia Amoore sank another shot from downtown a possession later to give Tech a lead it never surrendered for the rest of the game.

Different playmakers stepped up when called upon for Virginia Tech against Louisville Thursday night, helping the Hokies (14-3, 4-3 ACC) to their first win over the Cardinals (13-6, 4-2 ACC) since 1995, 81-79.

“Very gutsy performance,” head coach Kenny Brooks described to reporters following the win. “I thought throughout this game, everybody who played had a spell or two where they didn’t play well, and they didn’t run and hide. They all stepped up and they came up big.”

It truly was a team effort for Virginia Tech against Louisville with several players taking over at different points in the game.

In the first half, it was Elizabeth Kitley. The Summerfield, North Carolina native went into halftime shooting a perfect 5-for-5 from the field, leading all scorers with 10 points.

The Cardinals made adjustments at halftime to try to slow down Kitley, allowing for Taylor Soule to take over from that point.

The Boston College transfer burst out of the gates to open the second half, jumping out to a 9-0 run by herself to help Tech keep pace with Louisville.

She finished the third quarter with 13 points — over half of the Hokies’ 21 total points scored in the frame.

“I think we all know that nobody can guard her [Soule], honestly,” Kitley said.

Soule finished the game with a team-high 24 points, despite fouling out late in the fourth quarter.

With Soule sidelined for the final minutes of the contest and Tech still trailing by one, Traylor and Amoore stepped up with their clutch trey’s to give VT the lead.

Traylor had three of the Hokies six three pointers on the night, finishing with 17 points against the Cardinals.

“We just kept talking to each other to shoot confidently,” Traylor said. “Those are shots that we hit all the time so we just needed to settle in a little bit and I thought down the stretch we really locked in and hit some big shots.”

Defensively, Tech struggled against a talented Louisville offense. The Cardinals shot 50.8% from the field and 38.5% from deep — better than Tech shot in both areas.

Hailey Van Lith led the way for Louisville with 29 points, but took 26 shots to get to that number. The only other Cardinal to score double-digit points was Morgan Jones with 19.

Part of the reason for Tech’s miscues on defense could be traced to fatigue. The Hokies have played 17 games since the start of the season, but will get a break next week before traveling to take on Pittsburgh on Thursday.

“I definitely think [the break] is much-needed,” Traylor said. “Obviously, we’re all pretty old so our bodies are hurting a little bit. Even just mentally, just taking a break I think will be very important.”