No. 13 Virginia Tech cruises in season opener with King's record night

By Jack Brizendine

Staff Writer

November 7, 2022

BLACKSBURG — Pick your poison.

Head coach Kenny Brooks has offered opposing team’s this choice for as long as he’s had elite talent on his roster. Last night, the Mountaineers picked Cayla King.

Behind King’s record-breaking night from behind the arc, No. 13 Virginia Tech coasted in its season opener against Mount St. Mary’s, 101-45.

“If you want to go in and triple-team Liz [Kitley] and you want to leave Cayla King open, then that’s choosing your poison and it’s not very smart,” Brooks said to reporters after the game.

King dropped nine triples for the Hokies to set a new program record and led the team with 33 points. She was one of five Tech players who finished with double-digit scoring totals.

“I think honestly we just have so many threats on our team, that they have to pick and choose who they want to guard,” King said following her career night. “Tonight, they chose to guard Liz and it was my time to shoot.”

King said after the game she didn’t even hear the announcement of her breaking the record because the Cassell crowd was so loud. It was a rewarding moment for the senior guard, who faced adversity this offseason while bouncing back from an ankle injury that held her out of a few games in last year’s ACC tournament.

“A lot of people don’t understand what she went through, it was an extensive ankle sprain,” Brooks said. “It was that severe, so much so that we didn’t really do anything with her at all this summer. We just kind of let her relax and rest a little bit.

“She was ready for the first practice of the year, but still was hobbling a little bit. So much so, we had one practice and she was going through a stretch where she was shooting the ball so bad, because she was trying to get back in tune with her body and she just was not. She was missing. She was airballing.

“Right in the middle of practice I just walked right over to her and just looked at her and she just put her head right on my shoulder and she probably shed tears because she was shooting that bad. Slowly but surely she started to get into rhythm and probably the last two weeks she’s been shooting lights out.”

While King is a known commodity to the Blacksburg faithful, Virginia Tech had many new faces make their VT debut on Monday night.

Boston College graduate transfer forward Taylor Soule put up 14 points in her first game as a Hokie and snagged four steals.

“Coming to Tech, I wanted to be an aggressor offensively,” Soule said. “Honestly, [I wanted to] just [be] a really big energizer for my teammates, for the coaches, for the fans and so clearly that worked today. It’s fun. It makes the game fun. People feed off of that type of energy, so I’m going to keep doing it, keep doing my job.”

Soule is among a group of talented transfers who joined Tech this offseason, joining Maryland transfer Ashley Owusu and fellow Boston College transfer Clara Ford.

Owusu, who ESPN recently ranked as the No. 16 player in all of women’s college basketball, had a quietly efficient debut, racking up four assists and nine points.

Ford entered the game sparingly in relief of Elizabeth Kitley, only finishing with two rebounds and zero shots. She didn’t play much, but it was evident that she’s the best depth that Brooks has had behind Kitley since she arrived at Virginia Tech.

It’s a good problem to have [struggling to divide minutes among the team],” Brooks said. “I’d rather have that problem than not to have enough. We’ve been there before. It makes for good competition and everybody’s gotta find their way. [It’s] a very unselfish group and they’re going to continue to get better and better once they learn each other.

Kenny Brooks' squad will continue to build chemistry and learn its identity throughout these first handful of non-conference games. Next up for the Hokies is Bucknell in Cassell on Friday at 7 p.m.