No Liz Kitley(NWG) and No Cayla King(NWG), but VA Tech Women upset North Carolina in OT, 87-80

ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament from the Greensboro Coliseum:
No Liz Kitley(NWG) and No Cayla King(NWG), but VA Tech Women upset North Carolina in OT, 87-80

Elizabeth Kitley, from Northwest Guilford High School, and the ACC Women’s Basketball Player of the Year, only played eleven minutes in this game, scoring six first half points and then left with an arm/shoulder injury, and Liz returned, but she did not play again….

Cayla King, from Northwest Guilford High School, injured her ankle back in the Virginia Tech women’s win over Clemson on Thursday, and Cayla did not play at all today(Friday)….

But in the end, and it went into Overtime, the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team has earned its first-ever appearance in the semifinals of the ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament, after the Hokies upset the North Carolina Tar Heels today, 87-80, in OT…

The #5 seeded Hokies top the #4 Tar Heels, and Virginia Tech has found a way to “Survive and Advance”, as Tech takes its team to Saturday’s ACC Semifinal Round, at the Greensboro Coliseum….

from www.hokiesports.com:
GREENSBORO, N.C. — Aisha Sheppard and Georgia Amoore each scored 22 points as No. 21 Virginia Tech beat No. 16 North Carolina 87-80 in overtime of Friday’s Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament quarterfinals.

The win — with league player of the year Elizabeth Kitley exiting with a first-half injury — sent the fifth-seeded Hokies (23-8) to the semifinals for the first time since joining the league for the 2004-05 season.

The 6-foot-6 Kitley was hurt when she dove for a loose ball in the final second of the first quarter, then came up grabbing her right shoulder after UNC’s Kennedy Todd-Williams fell on her in the scramble.

Kitley returned briefly in the second, then exited for the locker room and spent the second half cheering on her teammates from the bench. Afterward coach Kenny Brooks said the team was being cautious with the NCAA Tournament looming, though Kitley was having pain raising her arm and her status is unclear.

The fourth-seeded Tar Heels (23-6) forced overtime with a perfectly executed inbounds play with 2.3 seconds left, with Carlie Littlefield throwing to Alyssa Ustby, who whipped the ball to the far wing for Eva Hodgson’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

Ustby and Deja Kelly each had 18 points to lead UNC, which arrived with aspirations of strengthening their postseason resume to host a set of opening-round NCAA Tournament game. The loss dropped coach Courtney Banghart to 0-3 in ACC Tournament games.

Virginia Tech shot 51%, including 11 of 29 from 3-point range. The Hokies played without starting guard Cayla King, who suffered an ankle injury Wednesday against Clemson.

More Records Set
The 87 points scored by Tech and the 167 combined points from both teams today are the most in a Virginia Tech ACC Tournament game. The Hokies went 11-for-29 from behind the arc and 22-for-27 at the line, both make and attempts are new records. The 18 assist in the game also set a new mark for the Hokies in an ACC Tournament game.

Additionally, the Hokies shot 50.9% from the floor against the Tar Heels after connecting on 58.7% of their shots against Clemson yesterday. This marks the first time in program history that Tech has opened ACC Tournament play with consecutive field goal percentages above 50%.

Individually, Georgia Amoore tied the free throw percentage record going 6-for-6 by a Hokie in a single ACC Tournament game. The best free throw percentage at the line is held by Nare Diawara who went 9-for-9 in 2007 against North Carolina. Amoore also set the record for minutes played in an ACC Tournament game for a Hokie, playing all 45 minutes of the contest.