Louisiana State is heading to its first championship game in program history after a rousing fourth quarter rally against top-seeded Virginia Tech, 79-72.
The Tigers, which fell behind by as many as 12 points, flipped the game completely in the last 10 minutes, coming out of the break following the third quarter with an immediate push. L.S.U. scored 15 points straight at one point to not only erase its deficit but to take a 10-point lead with less than four minutes left, behind the Tigers’ hungry forward, Angel Reese, who had transferred to the school from Maryland this season.
“It’s like a dream, it still hasn’t hit me that I’m at the Final Four,” Reese said. “It’s crazy how much my life has changed in one year.”
“All we had was each other,” she added.
Virginia Tech tried but failed to stop the onslaught. With 30 seconds left, Reese gave her signature nod of confidence to the crowd, who responded in kind with cheers. The sophomore guard had her 33rd double-double of the season, which tied the N.C.A.A. Division I record, scoring 24 points and 12 rebounds after a slow start especially on the boards.
L.S.U., a No. 3 seed that had also knocked off second-seeded Utah earlier in this tournament, will face the winner of No. 1 seed South Carolina and No. 2 seed Iowa on Sunday afternoon in the national championship game.
The Hokies, a top-seeded team that still treated itself like an underdog throughout March, had already accomplished a first for the program by making it this far in the tournament and looked well on its way to the championship game before L.S.U.’s comeback.
They outscored the Tigers in the second and third quarter with help from Elizabeth Kitley, who led the team with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and Georgia Amoore, who set an N.C.A.A. tournament record for 3-pointers, hitting her 23rd in the third quarter. She scored 17 points by the end of the game, mostly with 3-pointers. Kayana Traylor, who had 17 points, sparked the Hokies in the second and third quarters in the moments when it looked like they could turn the game into a rout.
“I’m extremely proud of this group, not only because of what they accomplished on the court but how they conduct themselves on the court, how they conduct themselves in our community,” Virginia Tech Coach Kenny Brooks said. “This is the best year of basketball that I’ve ever had in my life.”
Amoore, a junior, said she played her “heart out.”
The Tigers started the game in control only to trail off in the second and third as Amoore got hot from the 3-point line and the Hokies settled into an easy rhythm. But the Hokies began to run out of gas heading into the fourth quarter. Reese, along with Alexis Morris and Flau’jae Johnson, combined to attack the Hokies from inside and outside with strong shooting and rebounding. L.S.U. converted 22 points from rebounds and scored 54 points in the paint, compared with 14 for Virginia Tech.
L.S.U. Coach Kim Mulkey said after the game that she had to challenge her team “with a sense of urgency” going into the fourth quarter and told them “to play as if they had two minutes to play.”
“You gotta come out smoking and on fire, you gotta play like you’re never going to play again,” she said.
It worked.
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