Kitley, Virginia Tech Defeat UNC On Senior Day

BLACKSBURG, Va. — A slow start doomed the UNC women’s basketball team in Sunday’s game at No. 8 Virginia Tech, with the Tar Heels trailing by 16 at the end of the first quarter and eventually falling 74-62 to the Hokies.

North Carolina fell to 18-10 overall and 10-6 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with the loss, which ended a three-game winning streak. Virginia Tech improved to 23-4 (14-2) and locked up the No. 1 seed in this year’s ACC Tournament.

The Hokies’ Elizabeth Kitley, one of four players celebrated in Senior Day ceremonies before the game, led all scorers with 34 points, including 12-14 shooting from the foul line. Georgia Amoore, another senior honoree for the hosts, scored 19 points and handed out 11 assists.

Senior Deja Kelly led the Tar Heels with a season-high 29 points and hit nine of her 10 free throw attempts in playing all 40 minutes. Graduate student Lexi Donarski was the only other Tar Heel in double figures with 10 points.

UNC scored first on a three by Donarski just under two minutes into the game. The Hokies scored the next 11 points in a row then, after a jumper by Kelly, added 10 more for a 21-5 lead at the end of the first quarter. The five points marked a season-low for UNC in a quarter and the Tar Heels’ 15.4 shooting (2-13) was also a season-low percentage for a quarter.

Carolina clawed back in the second quarter, outscoring the home team 22-12 to pull within six at halftime. The exclamation point on the Tar Heels’ run was a just-past-midcourt three from Kelly to beat the second-quarter buzzer and send UNC into halftime with momentum.

Less than a minute into the third quarter, Donarski hit her second three of the game to cut the margin to five at 35-30. That was the closest the Tar Heels ever got, but UNC was still within seven in the final seconds of the period before an Amoore three-pointer with four seconds on the clock gave Virginia Tech a 10-point lead heading into the fourth. That three bumped Amoore’s total to 14 in the period.

UNC never got within single digits again. After hitting better than 50 percent of its shots in each of the past two games, Carolina finished at 39 percent (23-59) on Sunday. Virginia Tech, on the other hand, shot 52.9 from the field, the best percentage by a Carolina opponent this season.

For the second game in a row, the Tar Heels turned the ball over just seven times, one shy of UNC’s season low.

The first meeting of the season between the Tar Heels and Hokies, on Feb. 4 in Chapel Hill, needed overtime to settle, with Virginia Tech eventually winning 70-61.

Next up for UNC is another road game, this one at Boston College on Thursday. After that, the Tar Heels have just one game left, at home next Sunday against Duke for Senior Day.

(Courtesy of UNC and Virginia Tech athletics)