Virginia Tech women headed to first Final Four after topping Ohio St

SEATTLE (AP) — Elizabeth Kitley scored 25points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Georgia Amoore added 24 points andtop-seeded Virginia Tech advanced to the Final Four for the firsttime in school history with an 84-74 win over No. 3 seed Ohio Statein the Seattle 3 Regional final on Monday night.

For the seventh time in the past 10 Final Fours there will be afirst-time participant and it’s the champions of the ACC, addinganother accomplishment to the best season in school history.

Playing in its first regional final, Virginia Tech (31-4) wonits 15th straight game and will head to the Final Four having notlost in more than two months. The Hokies will face LSU in thenational semifinals on Friday in Dallas.

“We’re not just going to the Final Four. We’re in the FinalFour. That’s something that means the world to me,” Virginia Techcoach Kenny Brooks said.

Kitley, the Hokies 6-foot-6 center and leading scorer thisseason, took over on the interior in the second half. She scoredthe first seven points of the fourth quarter and her three-pointplay gave Virginia Tech a 70-60 lead.

Amoore hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to push the lead to13. Ohio State pulled within six in the final minute, but theHokies were nearly perfect at the foul line down thestretch.

After the final buzzer sounded and Virginia Tech was celebratingat midcourt, the sounds of “Enter Sandman” by Metallica blaredthrough the speakers of Climate Pledge Arena, setting off an evenlouder party for the Hokies fans in attendance.

Amoore shook off the scare of a potential leg injury in thefirst half to scored 16 points in the second half. She had acareer-high 29 in the regional semifinal win over Tennessee. CaylaKing added 12 points, all in the first half for the Hokies.

Taylor Mikesell led Ohio State (28-8) with 25 points, but 19 ofthose came in the first half. Mikesell didn’t score the first 16minutes of the second half before hitting a 3-pointer with 3:35remaining.

Jacy Sheldon scored 19 and Big Ten freshman of the year CotieMcMahon added 18. But the pressure defense that Ohio State used tobefuddle UConn into 25 turnovers in the regional semifinal waseasily handled by Amoore and the Hokies in the opening minutes andmostly abandoned by the Buckeyes.

“I felt we were a little tired coming into it. We put so muchenergy into Saturday’s game and we didn’t quite have the sameenergy in the press,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said. “And whenyou don’t have it, it’s tough because you can really get but up onthe back end and give up easy baskets.”

Ohio State was looking to join its Big Ten Conference partnerIowa in reaching the Final Four for the first time in 30 years. TheBuckeyes stayed with Virginia Tech shot-for-shot through a highlyentertaining and high scoring first half.

But the shots that dropped in the first 20 minutes stoppedfalling in the second half. Ohio State shot 64% in the first half,including five 3-pointer from Mikesell, but that dropped to just28% in the second half.

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Brooks is the third Black male coach to take a team to thewomen’s Final Four and second since the field expanded to 64 teamsin 1994. Winthrop McGriff with Cheyney in 1984 and Quentin Hillsmanwith Syracuse in 2016 were the others. Brooks is in his seventhseason in Blacksburg.

“I do know that when I was trying to make a name for myself,there wasn’t very many people that were doing it or advocating forpeople that looked like me. In this profession, I think that webelong. I think that there’s a place for Black males to come in andbe a positive influence,” Brooks said before the Sweet16.