When you play what might be the worst quarter of the last few seasons, it’s good to have it be in the middle of the game so that you can recover. Coastal Carolina closes a huge gap in the 3rd, and the Hokies
knuckle down to hold them off.
Confession: My old arthritic knees made it impossible for me to cover the game from the floor and take pictures, on the 15th. We’ll have to make this one an abbreviated version since I did not see the action directly.
This One was Another “Learning Experience”
You don’t have to see all of the action to note that the Hokies really dominated the game in the 1st half, especially the 1st quarter. The Hokies were hot as a hamburger griddle at dinner time downtown. In the first period, as they opened up a 30-13 lead the Hokies looked like they were just going to bury the Lady Chanticleers. Tech was shooting nearly 59% from the floor, with 4 three pointers (8 shots). The period ended and you could almost feel good about walking away from the feed to get something for lunch.
Then the 2nd period happened, and there was a creeping suspicion that something odd was going on with the Hokies. Yes, Tech won the quarter and extended the lead a bit, but Tech kept hitting rough road short dry spells, which then unfortunately made for a herkie-jerky sort of score a bucket or some free-throws, but miss two on the exchange with full minutes popping up between scores. Coastal wasn’t necessarily taking advantage of the situation, but Tech was definitely beginning to show signs of struggling to get the ball to fall.
The Third was Nearly a Disaster
The halftime horn sounded, and the Hokies went into the locker room up way too much to not be potentially hit with the Nemesis reaction to hubris. It would have been instructive to see their post half warmups, because the box score and play-by-play tells me that they were really fighting something that was keeping them from taking quality shots. The third quarter might have been one of the worst (if not the worst) period that this team has had in many seasons. Tech went 2-18 from the floor, and if you look at the general stats you see that 9 of those attempts were from beyond the arc, and their 3-point shooting had cooled considerably during the 2nd quarter.
The end result was a steady loss of exchanges, and Coastal Carolina steadily eating into the Hokies’ 24-point halftime lead. The Chanticleers scored points while the Hokies just kept putting up shots that wouldn’t fall. The end result was a nearly dry period with the Hokies only scoring 4 points for the period on 2 close-in baskets, one from Mackie Nelson, and the other from Carleigh Wenzel.
Tech was still ahead as the horn signaled the teams to take a break. Tech obviously needed it both functionally and emotionally because they ended up returning to form for the 4th period, and outscored Coastal Carolina 25-18 to pull back into a more comfortable lead and throw a bit of cold water on the Chanticleer run. Tech finished the period with a 60% shooting rate and scored enough to earn some Sunday morning Bojangles biscuits for the crowd. Kilah Freelon earned that one for this game.
Important Stats
A few things to note about the stats in this one. Coach Duffy played what looked to be a regular season bench with 8 players in the game rotation. Maybe that would have been different if the Hokies hadn’t faded in the 3rd, but between Mackie Nelson riding the bench for a good portion of the game as she was unhealthily noticed by the refs and sporting too many PFs for comfort the general balance of the offense changed. Overall, both teams were in the low 20’s for personals so it was a relatively balanced outcome. It’s just that maybe Mackie attracted a bit more attention for some reason.
The big news is that the Hokies had 4 players in double figures and Mel Daily just missed by one.
Carleigh Wenzel
Carleigh’s dry spell in the 3rd didn’t slow her down that much. It was probably frustrating for her because she double-doubled with a game leading 23 points and 10 assists. Wenzel played nearly the entire game at a shade over 38 minutes. She had a rebound and a steal on defense to compliment her work on offense.
Kilah Freelon
Kilah played 26 and a half minutes and scored 18 points on a scorching hot 6-7 from the floor, she pulled down 8 boards, pushed out an assist. She also registered 2 steals and a block on defense. Freelon just keeps contributing big things in games. Especially when the team needs some inside post work done to flip and exchange or score critical points.
Carys Baker
Is that “Steady Eddie” or what? Carys played over 37 minutes, only sitting out for a few times in the game. It was another double-digit scoring effort with 50% from 3-point range. Baker also went 3-3 in rebounds getting critical put-backs on offense. Baker registered 2 assists.
Mackie Nelson
What would have been if Mackie hadn’t attracted some unhealthy attention from the refs. She ended up being shorted minutes (only 22 on the floor for this one) to keep her on the bench and in the game. Mackie dropped in a 2 from downtown out of 9 total attempts. Nelson is still not shooting enough. She also pushed 4 assists, stole the ball once and pulled in a rebound.
Mel Daley, Samyha Suffren, Kayl Petersen, and Leila Wells
Mel Daley scored 9 points, had 5 rebounds, a block and a steal. Samyha Suffren scored 3 points in one from outside the arc. She had 2 assists, 3 boards, and 3 steals. Kayl Petersen took a grand total of 4 shots from the floor, unfortunately none connected, but she did get fouled and drained 2 from the charity stripe. She also had a 4 rebounds, a block, and an assist. Leila Wells played just over 10 minutes in this one. She registered a block, an assist, and a rebound.
The Hokies Need to Fix the Dry Spells
Not scoring can be attributed to more than a few factors. The Lady Hokies have been running into too many periods where the lid goes on the bucket. They have fortunately had opponents that failed to take much advantage of the situation, until Saturday afternoon. This might be one of those “wake-up” calls that helps them concentrate a bit on how to break the lid off the bucket and keep from losing exchanges.
Next Up – Niagara
The game is on Thursday, and the tip-off will be at a more standard 6:00 PM.
Then it’s a trip to Harrisonburg to take on JMU (If it’s the Dukes, are the Ladies the Dutchesses? That’s what it would be if we spoke English anymore.) Then its end of November Tournament time, and the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, the US Virgin Islands.
