The new year has not been particularly kind to the Lady Hokies. The Christmas break gave promise for a potentially solid start for the remaining ACC schedule, but “things” started happening late in their New Year’s Day contest against Miami, and their visit to Louisville just kept that unfortunate ball rolling.
Miami – Jan. 1st – Loss in OT – 67-75
The Lady Hokies dominated the boards and defense until mid-way through the 3rd quarter, and then the wheels came off for them. Miami storms back from a deep deficit to narrow the lead in the 3rd,
tie it in the 4th and win in Over Time.
Okay, we’ve said this before but for sporting contests it’s often worth repeating. Losses are all painful, but often the most painful losses are the ones that you lose, not get beaten. On January 1st, the Miami Lady Hurricanes were being soundly throttled with the Hokies up as much as 18 points with 3:35 to go in the 3rd and a bucket by Kayl Petersen, 49-31. That’s when the momentum part of “third quarter rule” kicked into play. For the next three and a half minutes, the Hokies would only score 2 points on a Mel Daley layup. Tech just kept missing shots, and Miami kept whittling away on that 18 point lead.
The Hurricanes would finish the 3rd quarter scoring 20 to Tech’s 18. Now, normally that’s not something particularly horrible, if the team is on an exchange a narrowing of the 14-point halftime lead to 12 wasn’t normally a sign of problems. However, that three minutes of missed shots and serious problems inside trying to get anything positive going for the Hokies while the ‘Canes made up points and re-established themselves down low was worrisome.
Disaster started happening in pulses in the 4th quarter. Tech started off pretty well with some buckets from Carleigh Wenzel, and a free throw from Kilah Freelon, but the Hokies stalled with at 57 for nearly 4 and a half minutes. Fouls, turnovers, and missed shots just kept the Hokies from getting anything until Mackie Nelson put in a trey to try to staunch the Hurricane steady press. The problem was that they didn’t have inside problems getting the ball to fall and had made up the gap to 53-57 before Mackie’s bib bucket. Now, that usually gets the ice broken and momentum back, but it didn’t. For the remainder of the quarter, Tech only scored a single short bucket from Kilah Freelon, and Miami kept winning exchanges. With the score tied at 60, Mackie’s attempt at a winning layup with 2 seconds left was blocked.
Miami missed their final chance but that sent the teams into OT, and the results were pretty much the same for the five-minute period as they were for the fourth quarter. Tech fell behind on missed exchanges as the OT period started, with the ‘Canes taking the lead and keeping it. The foul game didn’t work out in the last 2:00 so the score looked worse at the end than it really was, but the Lady Hokies weren’t getting very good results on offense, and that’s the end of things in any game.
Stats for the Miami Game
In general, the Hokies started off red hot for this one. They were almost 48% from the floor in the first three periods, but by the end of the 4th that chilled to only 40% for the quarter, meanwhile Miami was 50% for the 3rd, 60% for the 4th, and 80% in OT. Those curves crossed in that critical third quarter.
Carleigh Wenzel had a decent game shooting for this one with 16 points. She was 4-8 from downtown, and 2 of 3 from inside. The problem was playing time since the refs seemed to have “noticed” her and she ran into foul trouble so that limited her court time to just short of 28 minutes. Wenzel also pushed out 3 assists and blocked a shot.
Kilah Freelon had 13 with a nice 6-10 from the floor she also had 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
Mel Daley was 6-13 from the floor for 12 total points with 2 assists and 2 rebounds.
Mackie Nelson almost hit double digits with 9 points, all on treys BTW. She played the most time on the floor at 41 minutes plus, and pulled down 6 rebounds and pushed out 8 assists.
Carys Baker struggled in this one with only 8 points on 12 attempts. Miami pretty much blanketed her and kept her from getting good looks, especially inside where the ‘Canes just out muscled the Hokies.
Samyha Suffren (5), Leila Wells (2), and Kayl Petersen (2) all scored but combined for only 10 attempts. Aniya Trent is making her presence underneath known. She pulled down 7 rebounds and blocked 3 shots. Maybe if she attempted more buckets she’d have scored. Let’s hope that Coach Duffy keeps these players busier they are showing serious promise and will be critical for the next few seasons.
At #13 Louisville – Jan 4th – Loss 60-85
I could only catch this one as a wrap up on the play-by-play, so I apologize for not going into any big details. The reality is that Tech had a slim chance of putting a W on the board for this one. Kentucky’s state religion might be basketball, and Louisville’s trajectory has been ranked since the beginning of the season. They have inside size, good shooters, speed, and in general are just a better team at this point of the season.
The Lady Hokies ran into a haymaker and did the best that they could. There just wasn’t enough defense to slow down the Cardinal attack. They jumped out to a lead around the media break in the first quarter and really didn’t look back.
Hokie Stats to Note
Carys Baker had a much better effort for this one. She had 16 points. Carys almost double-doubled with 9 rebounds and she also swiped the ball twice. Where she had issues was beyond the arc. Hitting a few of those five attempts would have helped her with some confidence, though not denting the score that much.
Samyha Suffren came off the bench to up in 14 points. She led the team in assists with 5 and pulled down 7 boards 3 of which were ORBs.
Kilah Freelon and Mackie Nelson each scored 8 points. Mackie still didn’t shoot enough with just 4 attempts, and Kilah matched that with 4 of her own. The oddity in this one is that Nelson only had a single assist. Freelon did get a block and 3 steals on defense.
Carleigh Wenzel scored 5 points but really struggled shooting connecting on just 1 of 10 attempts. Mel Daley contributed 4 points but only made 4 attempts. Sophie Swanson (2), Aniya Trent (2), and Kayl Petersen (1) scored, but only attempted 7 buckets between them.
Next Up, Syracuse in New York State
The Hokies had a break day, on Tuesday, but travel to western New York to play the Lady Orange. This is definitely a winnable contest for the Hokies, and a win with some solid performances would go a long way to getting them back on track.
It’s still a long way to go in the season, and even though the Hokies weren’t necessarily counting on winning the ACC, they certainly were looking at the possibility of getting an invite to show up for March Madness. They really need to get back to their normal shooting percentages, good defense, and refocus on their rebounding.
They’ll be back home to play Boston College on Sunday Jan 11th. That’s two winnable games to get their feet back underneath them.
