#2 Louisville women's basketball travels to Blacksburg, VA for tonight's game against Kenny Brooks 6-2 Virginia Tech Hokies. It's a 8 p.m. tip and will be available on RSN. For some, that translates out to Fox Sports South.
It's the Cards first road game since they defeated Duke 73-49 back on Dec. 9th.
Virginia Tech is led by 6'5" sophomore forward Elizabeth Kitley, who leads the team with 18.8 points, 12 rebounds per game and a 64.8 percent shooting clip. 5'9" Senior guard Aisha Sheppard serves as the Hokies' primary perimeter threat, averaging 17.8 points per game thanks in large part to her 41.8 percent 3-point shooting percentage. As a team, Virginia Tech averages 80.5 points per game (4th in the ACC) and allows 64.1 points per game (9th in the ACC).
Tonight's contest will arguably be Louisville's first real test against a formidable paint-player in Kitley. She was last year's ACC Freshman of the Year and was selected to the 2020-21 All-ACC preseason team. In her freshman season, she averaged 12 points a contest, shot 57.3% from the floor and had 41 blocks. She also is grabbing 9.5 rebounds a game this season.
Sheppard was a First-team All-ACC selection last season and is currently second on the all-time made threes list at Virginia Tech with 219 in her career as a Hokie. She was also selected to the 2020-21 All-ACC preseason team.
Other VT players who have had an impact for Kenny Brooks this season include guard Georgia Amoore, a freshman guard from Australia. She averages 13 point-per-contest and leads VT in assists. Ashia Jones transferred in from USC and the redshirt senior is good for 10 point a night. Cayla King, a sophomore guard contributes 8.9 ppg and Azana Baines, a transfer from Duke, made her debut as a Hokie back on 12/31 in a 73-63 loss to FSU in Blacksburg -- scoring nine points in 18 minutes.
Brooks also has two of his daughters on the roster. Chloe Brooks is a reserve guard and Kendyl Brooks, who sat out last year due to injury, hs not appeared in any Hokie contests this season.
Of local interest, Shelby Calhoun is on the Hokie roster. The freshman from Christian Academy is a reserve guard who has seen limited action in four contests. At Christian Academy, she was the MVP of the 2019 Class 2A State Tournament that Christian Academy won.
The Cards will need to keep up the successful transition game that had been a key in their eight wins this season. It would be nice to see the resurgence of their three-point success stay on a upward track and between Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran -- let's hope they can make it a difficult night for Kitley. The main key, though, is how Dana Evans performs against the better-than-average VT back-court. If the Gobblers are able to slow Evans down, will Van Lith, the Smiths and/or "E' pick up the slack?
Will Walz go with a tighter rotation, as he did against Duke -- where only seven Cards saw more than 17 minutes -- or will it be a mass-substitution, keep-the-foot on the gas effort to try and wear out the Hokies, who were additionally punished by the front-line lines of FSU and Notre Dame in their last two.
It should be a fun one...I'll say Cards 88 -VT 74.
--sonja--
It's the Cards first road game since they defeated Duke 73-49 back on Dec. 9th.
Virginia Tech is led by 6'5" sophomore forward Elizabeth Kitley, who leads the team with 18.8 points, 12 rebounds per game and a 64.8 percent shooting clip. 5'9" Senior guard Aisha Sheppard serves as the Hokies' primary perimeter threat, averaging 17.8 points per game thanks in large part to her 41.8 percent 3-point shooting percentage. As a team, Virginia Tech averages 80.5 points per game (4th in the ACC) and allows 64.1 points per game (9th in the ACC).
Tonight's contest will arguably be Louisville's first real test against a formidable paint-player in Kitley. She was last year's ACC Freshman of the Year and was selected to the 2020-21 All-ACC preseason team. In her freshman season, she averaged 12 points a contest, shot 57.3% from the floor and had 41 blocks. She also is grabbing 9.5 rebounds a game this season.
Sheppard was a First-team All-ACC selection last season and is currently second on the all-time made threes list at Virginia Tech with 219 in her career as a Hokie. She was also selected to the 2020-21 All-ACC preseason team.
Other VT players who have had an impact for Kenny Brooks this season include guard Georgia Amoore, a freshman guard from Australia. She averages 13 point-per-contest and leads VT in assists. Ashia Jones transferred in from USC and the redshirt senior is good for 10 point a night. Cayla King, a sophomore guard contributes 8.9 ppg and Azana Baines, a transfer from Duke, made her debut as a Hokie back on 12/31 in a 73-63 loss to FSU in Blacksburg -- scoring nine points in 18 minutes.
Brooks also has two of his daughters on the roster. Chloe Brooks is a reserve guard and Kendyl Brooks, who sat out last year due to injury, hs not appeared in any Hokie contests this season.
Of local interest, Shelby Calhoun is on the Hokie roster. The freshman from Christian Academy is a reserve guard who has seen limited action in four contests. At Christian Academy, she was the MVP of the 2019 Class 2A State Tournament that Christian Academy won.
The Cards will need to keep up the successful transition game that had been a key in their eight wins this season. It would be nice to see the resurgence of their three-point success stay on a upward track and between Liz Dixon and Olivia Cochran -- let's hope they can make it a difficult night for Kitley. The main key, though, is how Dana Evans performs against the better-than-average VT back-court. If the Gobblers are able to slow Evans down, will Van Lith, the Smiths and/or "E' pick up the slack?
Will Walz go with a tighter rotation, as he did against Duke -- where only seven Cards saw more than 17 minutes -- or will it be a mass-substitution, keep-the-foot on the gas effort to try and wear out the Hokies, who were additionally punished by the front-line lines of FSU and Notre Dame in their last two.
It should be a fun one...I'll say Cards 88 -VT 74.
--sonja--