Last year, Virginia Tech's women's basketball team finished 7th in the ACC and dropped a first-round tournament game to #10 seed Wake Forest, 61-56. It was a major disappointment for the Hokies. This year, the Tech women once again finished 7th in the ACC, with an identical 6-8 conference record, and faced off against 10th-seeded Wake. History did not repeat itself, though, as the Hokie women notched a 73-60 win. Tech advanced to the second round and will face powerhouse Duke today at 7 pm.

Senior Dawn Chriss (18 points) and junior Kirby Copeland (17) led the Hokies, who took a 6-5 lead with 16:42 left in the first half and never trailed again. Copeland had 10 of her points in the first half, which ended with Tech holding a 35-28 lead.

Wake Forest (12-16) cut the lead to two points early on the second half, and to three points on two other occasions, but Virginia Tech (20-8) had a response every time. After Wake scored the first five points after the break to get within two at 35-33, VT coach Beth Dunkenberger called a 30-second timeout to settle her troops. The Hokies responded with eight straight points over the next two minutes to go up 43-33 with 16:50 left.

From that point on, the Tech lead ranged from five to ten points for the next ten minutes, then a layup by Wake's Liz Strunk cut Tech's lead to three, 52-49 with 8:20 remaining. Carrie Mason drilled a three-pointer just 21 seconds later to push the lead back up to six. Mason only had nine points and 1 assist on the night, but she made all three of Tech's three-pointers. Mason shot 3-of-7 from behind the arc, with the rest of the team taking just one three-pointer and missing it.

Wake got the lead back down to three points with 6:01 remaining, but Chriss scored again just 14 seconds later to put the Hokies up 61-56. From there, Tech gradually stretched their lead out, outscoring the Demon Deacons 12-4 down the stretch.

With the win the Hokies recorded their seventh 20-win season in the last eight years, and their first under second-year coach Dunkenberger.

The good news is that the Hokies advanced to the quarterfinals with the win. The bad news is that they face 2nd-seeded Duke, who has beaten the Hokies 73-62 (in Blacksburg) and 93-51 (in Durham) this season. The game is set for 7 pm in the Greensboro Coliseum, and it will not be televised.

Box Score: VT 73, Wake Forest 60


Ike Whitaker Suspended

Redshirt freshman quarterback Ike Whitaker was suspended from the Tech football team yesterday, following an arrest Wednesday on a charge of underage purchasing/possession of alcohol. Whitaker, who is 18, was arrested in Blacksburg and was suspended for "violation of team rules" in a hokiesports.com news release. The news release said that VT would have no further comment on the matter.

Whitaker may lose his chance to establish himself in the four-way quarterback derby that is about to get underway at Tech with the beginning of spring practice on March 22nd. Whitaker faces a hearing on the misdemeanor charge on March 23rd, and he won't be reinstated until the matter is resolved.

One source that TSL spoke with expressed surprise at Whitaker's arrest, saying that there were no prior indications that Whitaker would get in any kind of trouble. In an unusual move, Whitaker apparently posted an apology to Tech fans on TSL's message boards Thursday night at 6:24 pm. Posting as "ikeqb3," with an account that was opened using Whitaker's Virginia Tech email address, and posting from the Virginia Tech campus (per IP address decoding), Whitaker wrote:

This is Ike Whitaker. I want to apologize for embarrassing my family, friends, teammates, football program, and university. I know what I did was unacceptable and I will learn from it. Your support and concern is much appreciated. Sincerely, Ike.

Going into spring practice, the frontrunner for the starting quarterback job is redshirt sophomore Sean Glennon, followed closely by redshirt sophomore Cory Holt. Whitaker and fellow redshirt freshman Greg Boone are also going to be given the opportunity to compete for the job, but Whitaker's status is now in question.


Pearman Lands at UNC

It didn't take former Tech tight ends coach Danny Pearman long to find another coaching job. Pearman has been hired as tight ends coach at North Carolina, according to a UNC press release yesterday.

Pearman, a Charlotte native who attended Independence High in Charlotte, was the tight ends coach at Virginia Tech for eight years before being reassigned to an unspecified position in VT's athletic department last week.

There has been no official word on the departure of defensive backs coach Lorenzo Ward for the Oakland Raiders, but Ward is expected to leave, and Torrian Gray remains the top candidate to replace him, as reported earlier this week in News and Notes.