The NCAA Tournament Invitation Game is a critical factor in college basketball, and the Lady Hokies needed two Quad 1 Wins on their West coast trip. It’s a tough final three games and two road wins would put the Hokies at 20 games and lots of image points. They got them. How, is a ray of hope.
A Work in Progress Gets Progress
This is just the 2nd year of the Megan Duffy era of Hokie women’s basketball. We’ve visited the chaotic transition period that almost left her with a complete rebuild, and how she managed to win over critical players, convincing them to stay and buy in. We’ve seen her build a really solid coaching staff, and this year add a business brain to the program in hiring Stephen Fishler to take care of things that coaches really no longer have the time to do.
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What we haven’t really gotten to, yet are the rewards in both fan confidence and public relations buzz that means a program has turned the corner on perceptions. Once Kenny Brooks snuck out of town for bigger program money that also evaporated a huge perception of potential dominance from the media and sports analysts. That’s a natural given the success that Brooks had built with several key players (Sheppard, Amoore, and especially Kitley) and a “Final Four” appearance. The mission for Coach Duffy and staff was to get to the bottom edge of that image bubble at a faster pace than was possible in “the old days” before the portal and NIL.
Last season was a surprise for more than a few analysts and knowledgeable fans. A solid winning season, if a bit bumpy, here and there, gave Hokie Nation a bit of a ray of hope for the near future. The team got to play in a new better organized NCAA sanctioned women’s invitational and host some games at Cassell. That taste of post season was good for everyone involved and kept the momentum going for the Lady Hokies. It was evidence of real progress, and at a faster pace.
What’s all that have to do with the trip to the West coast of the Atlantic? Both University of California at Berkley (Cal) and Stanford University were admitted into the ACC a few years ago and presented more than just logistical and travel challenges for sports teams traditionally centered around the Appalachian Mountains and Eastern coastal plain. Those programs have money, prestige, and can field some talented basketball players. Neither program is leading the ACC, but they are in the peer group peloton of the conference and if a team plays them, the wins must happen to be relevant in the post season.
Winning Tight Games
Teams that learn how to win tight games are the teams that end up at the top of the pile at the end of the season. Yes, there are the dominant runaway teams that barely register a shrug when someone gets close enough to challenge them, South Carolina comes to mind and maybe UConn but wins and losses often come from games where neither team seems to manage to dominate the court until the score is tallied up at the final horn. Again, it’s that critical third quarter (or 10 minutes just after the half for the men) that often determines the positioning and momentum for the final ten minutes of any game.
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That’s what makes the two California games so similar and open the door to some real tournament dreams for the Hokies. They managed two “grinders” where neither team could get much momentum going and even with a run or two the other team managed to catch up.
It was All About Staying Close and Ahead
That’s in the headline. The Hokies and Golden Bears fought out a low scoring back and forth first quarter with Cal ahead by one point at the horn. There were really no standout performances on offense for either team in the first. Neither team could manage to get much beyond the other’s defense. Cal wasn’t scoring from outside, and the lid was on the basket for both teams inside. The period ended with a score that was indicative of the next two quarters. It was a one-point struggle session of even exchanges, short runs, and abreviated comebacks.
Where we began to see some glimmers of Tech getting somewhere was a 10-0 run in the second as Samyha Suffren came off the bench and sparked a rally for the Hokies that let them pass the Golden Bears. That four-point 33-29 Virginia Tech lead was challenged a few times in the 3rd, but the Hokies kept rallying up.
That halftime score seemed to breathe just a bit of life into an offensive situation that really hadn’t moved all that much on both sides of the court for both teams. The critical third quarter would determine this one, again. The Hokies had to figure out how to hold off Cal, but they also had to start finding the bucket and pushing the score out to more comfortable levels.
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Surviving the 3rd, on top by any score differential would end up a critical momentum factor going into the 4th period. The quarter buzzer went off and the Hokies somehow had found their feet enough to stay ahead of Cal, and that seemed to have imparted just enough momentum to carry the team into the 4th with the idea implanted in their minds that they had a good chance of pulling this one off if they could just start hitting open buckets.
The Third quarter ended with the Hokies and the Golden Bears locked in a one-point exchange with Tech on the plus side. Something needed to break that to their advantage by getting beyond the single bucket flip-flop. It was Carleigh Wenzel who broke the inside exchange with her big three pointer to open the Hokie 4th quarter scoring.
That charge from Carleigh’s three ignited some healthy scoring exchange wins for Tech. The Lady Hokies went on another scoring tear between the 9:30 and 5:00 marks that pushed them firmly in control at 12 points. This two-point bucket off of an offensive rebound is a prime example of the team play being put on by Tech. Tough defense and relentless pressure on the offensive boards won this one as the Hokies pulled away in the 4th.
That play ended up being Evan Hughes’s call of the game and Mel Daley’s critical ORB and putback for 2 points in the paint set the tone for the remaining half of the final period. Cal would bump back and forth but get no closer than a +/- 4 points for the remainder of the game.
It wasn’t a cruise for the Hokies, but they did manage to keep up the offensive pressure and maintain a scoring pace with the Golden Bears. It was a ride the plus side of the exchange game from the five-minute mark until the final horn sounded. The Lady Hokies had some sundaes on Sunday in California.
Relevant Stats
This wasn’t a biscuit sort of day. The play was tough and inside. Tech only attempted 5 three-pointers and only made one. Defense was stiff on both sides of the ball, Cal attempted 16 from deep and only made 3 of them – Tech’s screening was superior in this one. The whistles put both teams in danger of losing critical players to foul trouble and foul outs.
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In the Hokies case, Mackie Nelson ended up fouling out by the 4th, but her time on the court was seriously limited by foul trouble throughout the entire game. Sometimes the refs seem to zone in on one particular player or another, and unfortunately for Mackie the officials seemed to lock in on her for the Hokies. Cal lost two players to foul outs, and both were starters so the evenness of the calls really couldn’t be questioned. This was an inside, struggle with emphasis on struggle. The team to break that push-pull was going to be the one that inched away and won.
That’s where Tech has a sort of secret weapon off the bench. Samyha Suffren missed almost all of last season with an arm/shoulder injury that required patient rehab and a frustrating trip on the bench as a fan. This season she’s healthy and become one of Coach Duffy’s major spark plugs to sub in from the bench and turn it up a notch, add energy, and speed to the court configuration. The Cal game was Samyha’s time to shine.
Samyha Suffren
Samyha ended up playing nearly 30 minutes of a 40-minute game, off the bench. Part of that was necessary because of the foul trouble for Mackie, early, but a huge part of it was because Suffren was doing “Samyha Things” and put a serious supercharge in the Tech offense when it needed to stay close. Suffren’s critical points kept the Hokies going, and her 8-point contribution to Tech’s critical 10-0 run put the Lady Hokies into a positive advantage in the exchange that they did not lose for the remainder of the game. Suffren was a smoking hot 7-12 from the floor, she was 5-7 from the free-throw line, and what’s more, added 3 rebounds and a steal. She did bump up against 4 fouls, but that seemed to be par for the course in this game. Players needed to be brave and aggressive, and the coaches needed to allow them to play out their court time. Samyha’s 19-point effort was a season high for her, and a team high for the game.
Carleigh Wenzel
Talk about being cold from the floor but absolutely on fire from the charity stripe. Wenzel’s bucket lid has been a frustrating problem for her this season, but in this one the lid wasn’t on from the line. Wenzel was a perfect 10-10 from a whopping total of 7 drawn fouls. If you didn’t notice the point differential between the teams, park that delta at the feet of several players, but Wenzel should lead that group. That’s some sort of record, somewhere. Not only was she blazing from the free throw line, but she did also hit one of each from the field for an additional 5 points. Carleigh manages to keep that double digit scoring number high. In addition to her critical 15 points, Carleigh pushed out an assist and blocked a shot.
Kilah Freelon
Another double-double goes into the books for Kilah. She was 4-9 from the floor and a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line for 12 total points. Add to that she had 10 rebounds with 3 being critical ORBs to get put back opportunities. She also pushed out 4 assists and filched the ball 4 times for a major defensive contribution.
Carys Baker
When you talk Carys, you talk about Tech’s “Steady Eddie”. It took her an entire game, she played nearly all of it, to get to 10 points on 2 important free throws. But scoring didn’t seem to be Baker’s role in this one. She took a grand total of 8 shots in the entire contest. She made 4 for a respectable 50%. It’s important to note that Baker only took one three-point attempt making her a realistic 4-6 from inside. Baker also had 5 defensive rebounds and a steal. Coach Duffy seems to have used Carys for some muscle inside, and to keep the Cal 3-point offense from doing much damage. It was a solid performance for the tall half of the Connecticut Corner.
Mel Daley and Mackie Nelson
Mel needed to be in this one and came off the bench to contribute a solid 25 minutes. She put in 8 points on 3 from the floor and 2-2 from the charity stripe. She also registered 4 rebounds, and a steal on defense. Mackie, as noted above, seemed to attract too much referee attention. She did score 3 points with 3 total rebounds. She did push out 4 assists, which for her limited time on the court was a team high, and managed 3 steals on defense.
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Leila Wells contributed a point, an assist, and a rebound but seemed to be dedicated to defense. Kayl Petersen and Aniya Trent got some time on the floor to give the starters some critical rest.
The reality of the statistics showed that this one was another team win where it was necessary for the players to step up and four in double figures was absolutely necessary because every single point counted. The Lady Hokies earned their trip to the ice cream parlor on this one.
Next Up, the Ladies Come Home for Two
And it’s two really tough contests in Cassell Coliseum to wrap up the 2025-2026 home season. Tech hosts North Carolina in a super-sized grudge match on Thursday the 19th at 6:00PM, and then the other ACC Tech (GT) comes to town for the Sunday tip at 2:00PM. The season will end after a week rest break when the Hokies drive up I-81 and head across Afton Mountain to John Paul Jones Arena for a Commonwealth Clash with archrival UVA on Sunday March 1st at noon.
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Those are three tough but winnable games.
Ladies! You can do this!!!
