Associated Press

Virginia's Aisha Mohammed (right) is fouled as she drives between Virginia Tech's Brittany Gordon (left) and Utahya Drye on Thursday.

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Monica Wright and Lyndra Littles are the top scorers in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and combined the two have accounted for 76.6 percent of Virginia's scoring in ACC play.

Until Thursday.

Aisha Mohammed scored 16 points and yanked down 16 rebounds to lead No. 24 Virginia to a 66-57 win over rival Virginia Tech in the opening round of the ACC tournament at the Greensboro Coliseum on Thursday.

"We all talk about it ... we all have to step up and play the game, not just Lyndra and Monica doing all of the job," Mohammed said. "So we have to contribute. I made a promise to myself that I'm going to make sure I contribute."

Mohammed did more than contribute. She was a veritable ball hog in the paint, particularly in the first half when she had 10 rebounds and 10 points before the Hokies were ready to play.

"She was the difference ... you saw why she is the number one rebounder in the league," said Hokies coach Beth Dunkenberger. "She is hard to stop and hard to keep off the boards. Granted, we could have done a better job boxing her out, [but] when she plays hard, it's hard to stop her."

The sixth-seeded Cavaliers will play third-seeded Duke tonight at 8 in the last of four quarterfinal games.

The Blue Devils, ranked eighth in the country, beat Virginia 81-67 on Feb. 5 at John Paul Jones Arena.

"We're really going to have to take care of the basketball," Virginia coach Debbie Ryan said. "They are a great defensive team."

Ryan was pleased with her own team's defensive effort in the first half, and between the Cavaliers' defense and rebounding, they were off and racing to a 39-21 halftime lead.

The Hokies had "come out very flat," coach Beth Dunkenberger said.

Tech's Utahya Drye had 13 points in the first half, but the Hokies as a team had 11 rebounds to Mohammed's 10.

Tech point guard Laura Haskins, who normally doesn't get into any sort of foul trouble, picked up a foul in the first five seconds and said she got "a little tentative" after that.

The Hokies regrouped at halftime, played stronger defense, forced 11 turnovers and outrebounded the Cavaliers 23-15 in the second half to trim the lead to nine points with five minutes to play. But Littles hit a pair of jumpers, and Mohammed intercepted a pass and grabbed a defensive rebound to rebuild the Virginia lead to 13 and threat was averted.

Littles finished with 14 points and six rebounds. Wright had 11 points and Ariana Moorer had nine for Virginia (23-8).

Drye led Virginia Tech (12-18) with 21 points and seven rebounds.

Lindsay Biggs had 10 points and Haskins had nine. Brittany Gordon had six points and six rebounds and Shanel Harrison had nine points.

"It's a shame we didn't play the same in the first half the way we did in the second half," Haskins said.

"That's like the story of the whole season though, one minute one team shows up and then the next minute another team shows up."

Note

Laura Haskins was named the ACC's Kay Yow Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the league announced on Thursday.

Haskins and Lindsay Biggs, a junior sociology major, also represented Virginia Tech on the league's all-academic team.

Haskins earned her undergraduate degree in business management in three years at Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business, ranking No. 1 out of 129 students in her major. She is currently working on her MBA and has earned the Paul Hammelmann Award, granted to the highest-ranking graduate student at the Pamplin College.

Haskins ranks third in the ACC in assists and in assists-to-turnover ration.

She finished her career fourth all-time at Virginia Tech in assists with 389 and tied for fifth all-time with 175 steals.

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Drye 39 7-16 6-8 7 0 0 21

Gordon 32 1-6 4-6 6 4 0 6

Davis 23 1-5 1-2 2 0 2 3

Biggs 33 5-14 0-1 3 0 1 10

Haskins 31 4-7 1-2 3 2 3 9

Lewis 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Logan 6 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Grey 10 0-1 0-0 2 0 0 0

Harrison 19 2-7 4-6 3 1 1 8

Basham 6 0-0 0-0 1 0 2 0

Totals 200 20-57 16-25 34 7 9 57

Virginia MP FG FT R A F PT

Littles 36 6-14 1-2 6 0 1 14

K. Hartig 14 1-3 0-0 5 0 4 2

Mohammed 35 8-13 0-2 16 2 2 16

Millner 21 2-3 0-0 3 1 1 4

Wright 32 5-12 1-2 4 3 3 11

Moorer 19 3-4 1-2 3 3 4 9

London 16 1-5 0-0 4 1 1 3

J. Hartig 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Edwards 9 0-3 0-0 0 0 2 0

Shine 17 3-6 1-1 2 2 1 7

Totals 200 29-63 4-9 46 12 19 66

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Virginia Tech 21 36 -- 57

Virginia 39 27 -- 66

Three point goals: Virginia Tech 1-9 (Drye 1-2, Logan 0-1, Davis 0-2, Biggs 0-4), Virginia 4-10 (Moorer 2-3, Littles 1-3, London 1-3, Wright 0-1).

Turnovers: Virginia Tech 14 (Biggs, Haskins 3), Virginia 19 (Wright 5).

Blocked shots: Virginia Tech 2 (Gordon, Harrison), Virginia 2 (Littles, Edwards).

Steals: Virginia Tech 9 (Biggs, Haskins, Grey, Harrison 2), Virginia 10 (London 3).

Officials: Blauch, Fountain, Suffren.

Attendance: 6,564.