BLACKSBURG -- Kirby Copeland turned the basketball over nine times on Monday night.

That was the bad news. The good news was that Virginia Tech women's senior co-captain helped turn a close game into a comfortable Hokies victory.

Copeland notched a game-high 20 points to go along with seven assists and four steals to lift the Hokies past East Tennessee State 78-64 at Cassell Coliseum and give them a three-game winning streak.

Tech (7-4) outscored the Buccaneers 10-2 in the opening four minutes of the second half and never relinquished the lead after committing 13 first-half turnovers -- five of them Copeland's -- and trailing for most of the first 20 minutes.

East Tennessee State (4-6) jumped ahead 4-2 on a Michele DeVault bucket three minutes into the game and led by as many as six before Tech's Brittany Cook put the Hokies up 23-21 with 4:40 left in the opening half.

The Hokies finished with 25 turnovers -- seven more than their season average -- and went to the break with the score deadlocked at 29 apiece after Laura Haskins and Amber Hall both missed shots on the final possession of the first half.

"It was a little sloppier than we would have liked and not quite the performance we were hoping for," Tech coach Beth Dunkenberger said. "But nonetheless, we came out in the second half and played better and were able to walk away with a win. We'll take an ugly win any day of the week over a pretty loss."

East Tennessee State, led by junior center Jenny Norman's 12 points, kept the game close in the first half despite shooting 37 percent from the field and committing 11 first-half turnovers of their own.

"Any time you go on the road ... and you can play a half even, you've got to be satisfied with that," said East Tennessee State coach Karen Kemp. "But I was not pleased at half with our turnover situation."

Copeland, who leads Tech in points, assists and steals this season, struggled throughout the night with turnovers -- not a usual problem for her.

"I guess I was trying to make things happen that really wasn't there," said Copeland, the lone returning starter from last year's NCAA tournament team. "When I finally settled down and let my game come to me, I made smarter decisions. I was trying to get my teammates involved; I've just got to wait till the right opportunities to do it."

Copeland also had a team-high six turnovers in a loss to William and Mary on Nov. 13.

"Kirby makes things happen. I guess her fault would be that sometimes she tries too hard. I'll take that over not trying hard enough any day of the week," Dunkenberger said. "That's why she continues to play even though she turns the ball over some. She's been more consistent this year with taking care of the ball. I'm going to let her put this one behind her. She's already told me this isn't going to happen again."

Despite four more turnovers in the second half, Copeland added 13 points.

None were bigger than the five points she scored on a three-point play and long jumper during a span of 15 seconds to put Tech ahead 37-29 at the 17:07 mark.

The Buccaneers rallied to cut the Tech lead to 41-39, but Copeland scored on another three-point play with 14:06 left to spark a big Tech run capped by a Britney Anderson layup that made it 61-49 with 8:04 left.

"Coming out in the second half I just tried to put the first half behind me," Copeland said, "and come out and play a little smarter. We just buckled down on defense and got a couple easy baskets."

East Tennessee State shot 33.3 percent from the field in the second half.

East Tenn. St. MP FG FT R A F PT

Akers 26 1-6 1-2 2 1 4 3

Evans 19 1-4 2-2 3 0 3 4

Norman 21 5-10 2-2 3 0 4 12

Wilhoit 40 3-5 0-0 4 6 4 9

DeVault 25 3-8 3-3 0 5 1 10

Moring 5 1-1 0-0 5 0 0 3

Wiles 23 6-15 0-0 5 0 1 13

Thompson 20 2-5 1-2 2 3 1 5

Turman 10 0-4 0-0 2 2 0 0

Belcher 11 2-7 1-1 2 0 1 5

Team 2

Totals 200 24-65 10-12 30 17 19 64

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Anderson 16 3-5 0-0 0 1 3 6

Diawara 21 6-9 0-1 8 2 3 12

Copeland 30 8-16 3-5 4 7 1 20

Cook 34 7-10 4-5 6 3 2 18

Haskins 27 2-5 1-2 2 5 1 5

Murray 8 0-1 0-0 1 0 0 0

Brentnall 18 3-4 1-2 6 0 0 7

Drye 16 3-4 2-2 2 0 0 8

Biggs 10 0-3 0-0 1 0 0 0

Logan 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Hall 17 1-3 0-0 6 1 1 2

Team 6

Totals 200 33-60 11-17 42 19 11 78

East Tennessee State 29 35 -- 64

Virginia Tech 29 49 -- 78

3-point goals -- East Tennessee State 6-15 (Evans 0-1, Wilhoit 3-5, DeVault 1-5, Moring 1-1, Wiles 1-3), Virginia Tech 1-10 (Anderson 0-2, Copeland 1-2, Cook 0-3, Brentnall 0-1, Biggs 0-2). Turnovers -- ETSU 22 (Wilhoit 7), VT 25 (Copeland 9). Blocked shots -- ETSU 2 (Wilhoit 1), VT 2 (Diawara 1). Steals --ETSU 12 (Wilhoit 3), VT 11 (Copeland 4).

Officials -- Newton, Roberts, Preato.

Attendance -- 2,543