BLACKSBURG, Va. -- Elizabeth Kitley scored a layup on a cross-court inbound pass with less than a second remaining as the No. 13 Virginia Tech women beat previously undefeated No. 3 NC State 63-62 on Sunday.
Kitley shot 12 of 24 from the floor and finished with 27 points for the Hokies (12-2, 3-0 ACC), who rallied from a 13-point second-half deficit to win their seventh consecutive game. The Hokies also won their 19th consecutive home game.
Georgia Amoore had 21 points for the Hokies, who shot 41.5% (27 of 65).
"I think we've gone over that play multiple times in practice," Amoore said. "And you know, Cayla has great vision and great accuracy with that pass, and I knew that it's worked before. So, I was very, very confident."
Kitley gave the Hokies their first lead of the game at 61-60 with 1:28 remaining. The Wolfpack regained the lead on a layup by Saniya Rivers with less than three seconds to go.
After timeouts by each team, Virginia Tech's Cayla King threw a cross-court lob pass to the 6-foot-6 Kitley, who caught it and scored the game-winner.
"We needed it, and obviously we stumbled early in the year against the two ranked opponents," Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks said. "We just kind of like dug in and said, 'Hey, we're not trying to prove anybody wrong. We're just going to continue to prove ourselves right,' and that worked for us last year, and it continues to work for us."
Madison Hayes paced the Wolfpack (14-1, 2-1) with 21 points.
Rivers finished with 12 points for the Wolfpack, who shot 40.7% (24-of-59) and made just one field goal in the final eight minutes.
"I think the heartbreaking thing is we have a lot of respect for their program, and you're two seconds away from beating them on the road," NC State coach Wes Moore said. "That's heartbreaking. As a coach, you think I could have done something different, and we'd have won that game."
