Hokies’ Kitley, Irish’s Ivey lead ACC season honors

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley has been named Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year for the second straight season while Notre Dame’s Niele Ivey has been named coach of the year.

The league announced its award winners Tuesday, with Kitley repeating after averaging 18.8 points and a league-best 10.7 rebounds. The 6-foot-6 senior also became the program’s all-time leading scorer last week in a game that ended with her hitting a jumper at the buzzer to win at No. 18 North Carolina.

Ivey led the 10th-ranked Fighting Irish to the regular-season title.

Other individual awards were: Duke guard Celeste Taylor for defensive player of the year; Florida State guard Ta’Niya Latson for rookie of the year, North Carolina State guard Saniya Rivers as sixth player of the year; and Florida State guard Makayla Timpson as most improved.

Kitley headlined the first team and was joined by teammate Georgia Amoore. Notre Dame (Olivia Miles, Sonia Citron) and UNC (Deja Kelly, Alyssa Ustby) were the only other schools with two first-team picks.

The league begins its tournament Wednesday, with the Fighting Irish as the top seed.

___ AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25