Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball Splits the Paradise Jam Tournament Results

The Lady Hokies took a Thanksgiving trip to the Virgin Islands to play in an annual pre-New Year’s tournament. The team split their result dropping the first game to BYU by a close 60-64 and took their finale against Oregon State 78-67.

Unfortunately for the reporting side of things, the family spent the Thanksgiving holiday away from the TV and especially the computers, so this one is going to be a summary of the games from Hokie Sports stats and a review of the play-by-play for critical trends.

Game 1 – Nov. 27th vs. Brigham Young’s Lady Cougars

From the looks of things, this one not only went as desired, but it was also an offensive struggle for the Hokies from the beginning. They didn’t get going until 2 and a half minutes into the first period when Mel Daley snuck one in from 2-point range. Daley and Mackenzie Nelson would each put in 2 more as they approached the half-way mark in the 1st before Tech hit another frustrating dry spell. It would be 2 minutes before Tech would score again with a bucket from Carleigh Wenzel. Another minute and some would pass by before Carys Baker checked in with a 2 pointer at 2:13. It would be nearly the entire remainder of the period before Mackie hit to finish Tech’s scoring.

The saving issue was that BYU was having nearly parallel problems getting the ball to fall at a faster rate than Tech. The Lady Cougars took the 1st by a point 11-12.

The Hokies managed to pass the Cougars in the 2nd but it purely on shot attempts and not on a high percentage of them falling. The lid was really still on the bucket for Tech, and their attempts were just not falling. BYU had a lower shot attempt rate, but a slightly higher percentage of hits. The 2nd period and half ended with Tech in the lead 27-23 but that score was notched before the final minute ticked away.

The “third quarter rule” bit the Hokies hard for this one. In a pitched close defensive battle, any run edge is going to make a major difference and make the game difficult to close in the 4th. It wasn’t as much a single run for the Lady Cougars as the tendency for the lid to go on for the Hokies while BYU made up a few points in Tech’s offensive mini-stalls. The Cougars outscored the Hokies 11-20 in the period, and that was enough with a roughly par 4th for them to hold on to a relatively even exchange in the 4th period. The game remained close the entire time, but Tech just couldn’t get a run going to flip possessions and turn them into points.

The final horn sounded, and the Hokies ended up 5 points short of a win: 60-64

Statistics Wrap for Game 1

There were only two players in double figures for the Hokies in the BYU contest.

Carleigh Wenzel led the team with 18 points, but spent most of her time putting up shots that missed from downtown. She made 4 of 13 from beyond the arc and 2 of 5 from inside. Carleigh hasn’t played much point so she only pushed an assist. She also grabbed 3 rebounds on the defensive boards and swiped the ball 3 times.

Mel Daley is not an outside shooter by design, and her 2 misses are to be forgiven. She did score 16 from inside putting up a nice 8 of 14 effort for the game. On defense she matched Carleigh with 3 boards, but one upped her teammate with 4 steals.

Mackie Nelson keeps coming up a point or so short of double digits on the board, she scored 9 in this one, but pushed out a team high 5 assists. She also had 6 defensive rebounds to go with her offensive output. It would have been nice to see her drain her usual total of free-throws but she missed 2 of 5 attempts.

Carys Baker (6), Kilah Freelon (5), Leila Wells (4), and Amani Jenkins (2) all contributed some points but only Carys shot enough at 9 attempts. Kilah might have been ignoring shot opportunities, she put up only 5 attempts, but she shined on the boards with 14 rebounds, 6 of which were critical ORBs.

Game 2 – Nov. 29th vs. Oregon State

The loss to BYU was disappointing across the board. The Hokies’ shooting was off, and just over half of the shot output was limited to basically two players, Carleigh Wenzel and Mel Daley. It was obvious that the Lady Hokies needed to get more players involved in the offense, and figure out a way to smooth out the scoring droughts that have been plaguing them since the season started.

Tech Jumped Out to a 1st Quarter Lead

What a difference a couple of days and some review makes. The one thing that really needs to happen, more often, is that the Lady Hokies really need to pour it on and establish an early lead and control over the rhythm and flow of the game. It’s really a universal in all sports but in a game as fast and relatively high scoring as basketball, getting a big lead means being able to stay with a scoring exchange and run out the clock before a team can get its feet underneath them.

Mel Daley started off with a roar, Mackie Nelson was sharing the dish duties with Carleigh Wenzel, who seemed to thrive getting some of the quarterbacking duties back, opened the scoring for Tech. It seems that with the shooting pressure off, she relaxed and started shooting from the floor with a bit more accuracy. Carys Baker’s bucket lit broke open and Carys had herself a premium outing starting in the first period.

The Lady Hokies pushed into a 12-point lead by the end of the 1st; 26 -14.

Once the Hokies got that double digit buffer it became a chase to keep the exchange even and continue the defensive pressure so that Oregon State couldn’t manage to get a run going. The 2nd quarter was owned, offensively, by Mel Daley who kept draining twos, and Kilah Freelon who finally started to get the ball to drop on layups and put backs. Carys and Leila Wells were the only two Hokies who scored in that 10-minute stretch.

What was even more important is that Oregon State only made up a point in differential in the second so the Hokies went to the locker room break at the half ahead of Oregon State; 44-33. Nothing in basketball, halfway through, is comfortable, but the Lady Hokies seem to have gotten back a measure of confidence.

The 2nd Half was a Repeat of the 2nd Quarter

The Virginia Tech and OSU dropped into a steady point exchange for the entire remainder of the game. There were scoring droughts on both sides of the court, though. Thankfully for the Hokies those droughts were not one sided and neither team seemed to be finding the bucket. The horn ended the 3rd, and Tech had made up the single point that they had lost on the differential; 62-50.

The good news was a more relaxed Carleigh Wenzel led the Hokie scoring with 3 made free-throws, and 2 treys. Mackie, Kilah, Mel, and Leila wells also scored in the period.

The 4th quarter was a bit of a nip back by OSU, but the end of the game came, and the Lady Hokies had managed to keep that 11-12 point margin as the horn sounded. Carys and Mel were the only Hokies to score in that final period. Carys even got the ball to fall, two times in a row, from beyond the arc. It was a really good outing for both of them, and Carleigh, too.

The game ended with the Hokies closing out the Tournament with a 78-67 win and a more balanced effort that the coaching staff will be able to build on.

Game 2 Statistics

Mel Daley

Mel scored a team high 24 points on a beautiful 10-12 from 2-point range. She was also a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe. She also added 3 assists and 2 boards on offense. Defensively Daley was a solid contributor with 2 steals and a blocked shot.

Carys Baker

Carys showed signs of finding her way out of a shooting deficit over the last couple of games, but the BYU game wasn’t where she’d make her mark on this road trip. Carys finally started connecting routinely in this one. She was a solid 8-13 total from the floor, and a rocket hot 3-4 from 3-point range. Baker finished with 20 total points. What’s even better is that she tied Kilah Freelon for rebounds at 7, 2 of which were offensive boards. Carys also snuck in 2 assists on the day to cap a nice offensive performance.

Carleigh Wenzel

You have to hand it to her; the young lady just doesn’t give up. She just kept shooting and eventually the lid got knocked off the bucket. She was actually 4-6 from two-point range. She was also tied for team lead on assists with Mackie Nelson at 6 and defensively she pulled down 3 boards and stole the ball twice.

Mackie Nelson, Kilah Freelon, and Lelia Wells

Mackie Nelson just missed double digit day, again at 9 points. She was actually 2 of 3 from the floor but put up a few more shots from beyond the arc than usual. We already mentioned the 6 assists, but she also led the team in defensive rebounds with 6. Kilah Freelon is finally getting the ball to fall on attempts and was perfect from the foul line at 2-2, to finish her scoring for the day at 6 points. She did grab 7 total rebounds (2 ORB, and 5 DRB). Kilah also pushed out an assist and blocked 2 shots on defense. Leila did some good work off the bench with a 2-4 finish from inside the arc and 2 free-throws for a total of 6 points. She also grabbed a defensive rebound to help out there, too.

Next Up, It’s Back Home to Face Florida

It’s ACC/SEC Challenge time, and the Florida Lady Gators are coming to Cassell Coliseum to play on December 4th. That tip-off will be at 5pm.

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