Virginia Tech
89, Iowa 76
NCAA Tournament First Round
by Will Stewart, TechSideline.com, 3/21/04
Blacksburg, VA -- Talk about picking a good time to shoot the lights out. Virginia Tech's women's basketball team, not known for their marksmanship, notched their second-best shooting performance of the season and hit the high-water mark for scoring this year, surprising Big Ten foe Iowa and knocking the Hawkeyes out of the Women's NCAA Tournament, 89-76.
The Hokies blistered the nets for 59% shooting (36-61), including a white-hot 66.7% in the second half, and within those stats was an even more amazing story: Tech hit seven of their eight three-point shots, including a six-for-six performance in the first half that knocked Iowa back on their heels and staked the Hokies to a 40-27 half time lead.
In addition to the unusual hot shooting, the Hokies displayed another weapon they're not known for -- toughness. In a game that was as brutal as any matchup you'll ever see in men's or women's college basketball, the Hokies didn't back down when the physical Hawkeyes took advantage of an officiating crew that seemed to have swallowed their whistles. Both teams hacked and pushed their way through a game in which numerous fouls went uncalled, particularly in the first half. In the end, the physicality of the game ended up being a draw, and it was Tech's hot shooting that won the day and propelled VT into the second round, where the 8th-seeded Hokies will meet #1 seed Penn State, 79-42 winners over Hampton on the other first round game played Sunday.
Tech raced out to a 10-2 lead in this one behind three-pointers by Carrie Mason and Ieva Kublina. Both Kublina and Mason went 3-for-3 from three-point range in the first half, and the two of them led a charge that put four Hokies in double figures for the game: Kublina (game-high 26 points on 10-15 shooting), Mason (19 points on 6-10 shooting), Kerri Gardin (16 points, 7-14), and Dawn Chriss (14 points, 7-9).
While the Hokies were shooting the lights out, they also played lights-out on defense in the first half, holding the potent Hawkeyes to just 30.3% (10-33) in the first stanza. By the time Iowa got off the blocks, it was too late. The Hawkeyes cut the lead to one point at 12-11 but never got closer than that the rest of the game, as the Hokies surged back out to a 31-21 lead and then kept the margin at ten or more most of the game.
Tech's biggest lead came at the 15:30 mark of the second half on a layup by Kublina that made it 53-34, and though Iowa would later trim it to 74-67 with 4:06 to go, it seemed that Tech always had an answer, whether it was a crisply executed inbounds play off a timeout, or a steal and a layup. At one point, when a 12-6 Iowa run cut Tech's lead to 59-46, Mason hit a three-pointer, then stole the inbounds pass and dished it to a slashing Dawn Chriss for the layup, pushing the lead back to 18 in a matter of seconds, 64-46.
The Hokies outrebounded Iowa 35-31 and tallied a season-high 11 blocks, 4 by Kublina, who played with a vengeance and couldn't have picked a better time to put up her season high in points, after a senior year that saw her scoring average drop to its lowest figure since her freshman year. Overall, the offensive and defensive performance by the Hokies was matched only by Tech's February 28th 85-55 blowout win over Pittsburgh.
But this was the NCAA Tournament, and Iowa is no lightweight like Pittsburgh. Somehow, Bonnie Henrickson always has her troops ready to perform in the NCAAs, and today was no exception.
The Hokies' second-round game with Penn State is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday and will be televised by ESPN.
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Virginia Tech 89, Iowa 76
NCAA Tournament 1st Round
3/21/04, Blacksburg, VA
1st 2nd Tot
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VIRGINIA TECH 40 49 - 89
IOWA 27 49 - 76
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#9 IOWA (16-13)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
J Solverson 19 0-6 0-0 1-3 4 0 0
J Lillis 39 8-18 5-7 6-10 2 4 22
J Cavey 34 5-11 4-4 0-4 4 4 14
L Richards 24 1-2 0-0 0-1 2 1 3
K Faulkner 33 6-17 6-6 0-2 3 0 20
C Smith 23 4-8 0-0 5-5 0 3 10
T Reedy 21 3-3 0-0 2-3 0 1 7
B Mccann 7 0-1 0-0 1-2 0 2 0
_____________________________________________________
TOTALS 200 27-66 15-17 15-30 15 15 76
_____________________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.409, FT-.882. 3-Point Goals:
7-15, .467 (J Solverson 0-3, J Lillis 1-2, L
Richards 1-2, K Faulkner 2-4, C Smith 2-3, T
Reedy 1-1). Team Rebounds: 1. Blocked Shots:
8 (J Lillis 4, J Cavey 2, K Faulkner, J
Solverson). Turnovers: 16 (J Lillis 5, J
Cavey 4, K Faulkner 2, L Richards 2, T Reedy,
C Smith, J Solverson). Steals: 11 (J Lillis
3, L Richards 3, C Smith 3, J Cavey, T
Reedy).
#8 VIRGINIA TECH (23-7)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
I Kublina 35 10-15 3-4 2-6 1 2 26
K Gardin 36 7-14 2-2 1-8 5 2 16
E Gibson 30 3-8 0-0 0-4 1 3 6
D Chriss 33 7-9 0-0 1-4 7 3 14
C Mason 39 6-10 3-5 0-4 7 0 19
K Copeland 4 1-1 1-1 1-3 0 1 3
F Recchia 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
B Fowler 1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
B Anderson 8 0-2 1-2 1-1 1 0 1
D Simmons 10 1-1 0-0 1-2 0 4 2
M Finnerty 3 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 2
_____________________________________________________
TOTALS 200 36-61 10-14 7-32 22 16 89
_____________________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.590, FT-.714. 3-Point Goals:
7-8, .875 (I Kublina 3-3, C Mason 4-5). Team
Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 11 (I Kublina 4,
E Gibson 2, D Chriss 2, K Gardin 2, B
Fowler). Turnovers: 17 (C Mason 5, K Gardin
4, E Gibson 3, D Chriss 2, I Kublina, D
Simmons, K Copeland). Steals: 10 (C Mason 3,
K Gardin 2, E Gibson, I Kublina, D Simmons, D
Chriss, M Finnerty).
Technical fouls: None. A: 4,708. Officials: Jeff
Caudle, Scott Yarbrough