GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Georgia Amoore scored 25 points to help No. 8 Virginia Tech beat Louisville 75-67 on Sunday to win its first Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title.
Two-time league player of the year Elizabeth Kitley added 20 points for the Hokies (27-4), who continued their late-season tear with an 11th straight win. Virginia Tech turned its first trip to the ACC title game into a strong finishing act, pushing to a double-digit lead before halftime and keeping the Cardinals at arm’s distance the rest of the way to cap a tournament where the Hokies rarely trailed in three games.
Before Sunday, the Hokies had been as far as the ACC semifinals only once since joining the league for the 2004-05 season — and that came last year. Now they’re celebrating a milestone victory under seventh-year coach Kenny Brooks, who has built this program to the top of the league.
“Unbelievable, unbelievable,” Brooks said on the court as his players celebrated in front of Hokies fans.
When the horn finally sounded, Kitley and Kayana Traylor skipped to midcourt to meet the rushing mob of players and coaches from the Hokies sideline headed for a midcourt celebration as the streamers and confetti dropped from the Greensboro Coliseum rafters.
Amoore earned MVP honors of the tournament, while Taylor Soule was soon taking photos of teammates lining up to pose with the championship trophy. A bit later, she stood on the stage choking back tears while teammate Clara Ford — who had transferred with her from Boston College — had her arm around her.
“I’m proud,” Soule said through the tears.
While Amoore and Kitley led the offense, the Hokies got a vital second-half spark from Taylor Soule. She had all 13 of her points after halftime, including nine in the third quarter with multiple finishes in the paint as the Hokies poked and probed the Cardinals’ trapping pressure.
Chrislyn Carr scored 27 points to lead fourth-seeded Louisville (23-11), which fell behind by 13 in the first half as Amoore and Kitley got going. The Cardinals got no closer than seven points after halftime until the frantic final seconds, with the Hokies showing the toughness and resilience to turn away every push by Louisville and close this one out.
Louisville made its closest push in the frantic final seconds to within 73-67 on Merissah Russell’s 3-pointer with 28 seconds left. But Kitley hit two critical free throws with 15.1 seconds to go that pushed the lead back to eight for what turned out to be the final margin.
This was the Cardinals’ fourth finals appearance, the first being a title win in 2018 followed by losses to Notre Dame in 2019 and North Carolina State on a late basket in 2021. Their first two wins came against Wake Forest and No. 10 Notre Dame, which had taken regular-season meetings against them.
But Louisville couldn’t complete its revenge tour, shooting just 37% while star guard Hailey Van Lith managed 12 points on 4-for-17 shooting.
BIG PICTURE
Louisville: The Cardinals started the year ranked No. 7 but fell out of the poll before December and had remained unranked the rest of the year. But they entered this game having gone 7-2 since the start of February, with both losses coming to the Fighting Irish. That put them within reach of potentially hosting opening-round NCAA Tournament games, but they couldn’t quite complete their run to ACC title No. 2.
Virginia Tech: The Hokies lost since falling Jan. 26 at now-No. 13 Duke. That included a road win at No. 18 North Carolina on Kitley’s last-second shot last week, then romps against Miami and the Blue Devils through the first two games in Greensboro before cutting down the nets Sunday. They’ll carry all that momentum into the NCAAs.
UP NEXT
Both Louisville and Virginia Tech await their NCAA Tournament seeding, with the Hokies holding the ACC’s automatic bid to the field.
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Follow Aaron Beard on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/aaronbeardap
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25