Virginia Tech wipes slate clean with win over Boston College, 85-62

By Jack Brizendine

Staff Writer

February 8, 2022

BLACKSBURG — Elizabeth Kitley knocked down a free throw following her second-straight and-one with 5:35 left in the fourth quarter to extend Virginia Tech’s lead to 21.

Kitley’s explosion in the middle of the fourth quarter pushed her to a game-high 27 points and slammed the door on a potential Boston College comeback, as Virginia Tech (16-6, 8-3 Atlantic Coast) romped the Eagles (15-8, 6-6 Atlantic Coast), 85-62. The win came on the heels of a crushing road loss to No. 20 Notre Dame, 68-55.

“We had to lay it out for [the team],” Kenny Brooks said. “You’ve had 10 conference games. Seven of them have been on the road. Your three losses in conference are all to Top 25 teams on the road.

“It’s one game and one game doesn’t make a season, so let’s not let [the Notre Dame loss] be a hangover to where it affects the next game. We just wiped the slate clean.”

To say the Hokies didn’t let Thursday’s loss affect their performance against Boston College would be an understatement.

Facing an Eagles team that also had eight ACC victories coming into the game, Virginia Tech came out with a vengeance, drawing 29 fouls that converted into 31 makes from the charity stripe, both program bests.

“If you’re going to continue to foul, you either have to stop fouling or you're going to allow a school to set a record for most free throws in a game,” Brooks said. “We continued to be aggressive and take advantage of it and they continued to foul, so we got to the free throw line and we knocked them down.”

Kitley contributed the most to that cause, knocking down 11 of 12 from the line.

“We honestly had prepared for them to get to the free throw line, but we didn’t really talk about how much they would put us at the free throw line,” Kitley said. “I think we capitalized off that really well and obviously shot a great percentage.”

Virginia Tech only left two points on the table from behind the line, shooting an impressive 94% from the free throw line on 33 attempts.

The free throw production helped the Hokies jump out to a 37-26 lead at the half despite shooting a measly 32% from the field during the first 20 minutes. Nearly half of that total (18 points) came from the free throw line.

The Hokies were much more efficient offensively after halftime, downing 59% of their shots and paving the way for a 48-point second half that propelled them to victory.

The Hokies will continue their season-long four-game homestand with games against Clemson (Tuesday), No. 11 Georgia Tech (Thursday) and No. 23 North Carolina (Sunday).

“It is what the schedule says,” Brooks said. “Obviously the Clemson game [was rescheduled], but it’s just good to be at home.”

Virginia Tech faces a quick turnaround as it hosts Clemson (8-15, 2-10) on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra.