In all the fuss and all the coverage, one point has gone unsaid all season long, and that point is this: the Hokies are as thin at point guard as a Lisa Witherspoon back muscle.

I'm one of those people that is always looking forward, and as I have watched this team work their way through the season, winning by hook or by crook, sometimes convincingly, sometimes not, one thought has always been in the back of my mind: man, they're going to miss Lisa Witherspoon next year.

Tech's diminutive, popular, and talented point guard plays almost 40 minutes a game, and when she does sit down, I can't even tell you who her replacement is. I think the Hokies switch Amy Wetzel over to the point, but you know, I'm not sure.

I turned the radio on to listen to this game, and I was greeted with the disturbing news that the Spoon wasn't going to play, due to back spasms. Lisa has had back trouble as long as I've been following the team, and she almost always plays in pain, to the point where we take for granted that despite her back problems, she'll be out there, putting in her forty minutes, and playing so well that you can't even tell she's hurting.

And suddenly, today, it was different, and Spoon wasn't there, and the Hokies and their fans got an unexpected and unwelcome look into the future, a future where Lisa Witherspoon is a spectator.

The Hokies started Amy Wetzel in Spoon's place, and the difference was palpable. Despite the backing of a large, vocal Hokie fan contingent estimated to be somewhere around 500 or more, the Hokies couldn't get on track, and fell behind Dayton quickly. Tech was out of synch, and Dayton, coming off a first-round victory over Temple in which the Flyers scored 39 second-half points, quickly got the Hokies down and kept them down.

Trouble spots abounded. In the first half, a half that saw Tech go into the locker room down 31-21, Tech's Tere Williams didn't just fail to score - she barely took a shot. T-Will was only 0-1 and didn't score in the first half, a sure sign that she was missing Witherspoon. Williams has been saying lately that she needs to learn to score off of the dribble, and with Witherspoon out, it was obvious that Tere has become spoiled by having Spoon deliver the ball to her five feet from the basket, in scoring position.

Meanwhile, burdened by the responsibility of running the point, Amy Wetzel was freaked out of her game and was similarly invisible, scoring only two points. Tech was down just ten points thanks to the efforts of Michelle Houseright (who can score off the dribble), and Katie O'Conner, who, if I remember my first half stats correctly, had about 6 or 8 points each.

Coach Bonnie Henrickson had her work cut out for her during the half time. Mainly, how could she get her troops to play with confidence and come back for the win?

I'm not sure what Bonnie said, but she managed to pull it off. At first, it didn't look like it, because Tech promptly coughed up the first six points of the second half, and found themselves down 37-21, with one foot (and one leg, and one hip) in the grave.

Wetzel to the rescue. During halftime, Wetzel was essentially told to stop trying to be Lisa Witherspoon, and to start being herself. Amy's forte is driving to the basket, and she suddenly blew up on Dayton, taking the ball into the paint repeatedly, scoring, and getting fouled.

The Hokies stormed back into it behind Wetzel, who would eventually add 20 more points to her first-half total and would finish with 22.

From the time it was 37-21 and the Hokies were left for dead, Tech outscored Dayton 26-10, and the game finished regulation tied at 47. Both teams blistered the nets in the first overtime, scoring 11 points each, and Dayton sent it into a second overtime by scoring with five seconds left to go.

The second overtime was a lot more quiet, but it ended with a bang. The two teams each scored four points and found themselves deadlocked at 62 when Maria Albertsson hit a three-pointer with under 30 seconds to go that appeared to put the finishing touches on Dayton. After all, Dayton hadn't hit a single three-pointer in the game, and as a matter of fact, had only taken one.

No matter. Dayton's Kizzy Dawson drained a three with just a couple of seconds left to go. Hokie fans groaned, and the game went to a third overtime.

The third overtime started with the two teams tied at 65, and Dayton hit the first bucket to go up by two. The Hokies responded with seven straight points to go up 72-67, but in that stretch, Tech missed numerous opportunities to totally slam the lid on Dayton. Primarily, the Hokies missed their free throws, including a 1-of-4 stretch from the exhausted Wetzel.

It was still a two-possession game, and wouldn’t you know it, Dawson hit another three-pointer to close the gap to 72-70. Tech's Katie O'Conner was fouled with six seconds left to go, and she twisted every Hokie's underwear into a bunch by making just one of her free throws, leaving the door open for Dayton at 73-70.

Inexplicably, the unstoppable Dawson took a two-pointer at the buzzer instead of a three-pointer. She made it, of course - by that time, Dawson was camped out in The Zone where all hot players take up residence - but it was moot, because it only made the final score 73-72. If Dawson had used her brain, the game would have gone to a fourth overtime, and they might still be out there playing.

Tech now limps into a semifinal game with the dreaded Xavier, who presents massive problems for Tech when Witherspoon is playing. Channel 10's Justin Ditmore reported after this game that Bonnie Henrickson told him that she didn't think Witherspoon was going to play in the next round. If the Hokies somehow make it past Xavier, I don’t think we'll see the Spoon in the final, either.