Something had to stop the slide. The Lady Hokies had a really disappointing New Year’s weekend and really needed to get refocused and back into win mode. They managed to do that in Syracuse, NY with a 20-point win over the 13-2 Lady Orange.
The Setup
It really wasn’t panic time, but it certainly was time to get concerned about team performance as the Lady Hokies climbed the boarding ladder for their flight to Syracuse, NY. The prior two games represented very different types of loss. Miami’s 18-point 4th quarter comeback, and near blanking of Tech in the OT period in Cassell was a massive gut punch. There are just no two ways to paint that one. The loss in Louisville was not unexpected, but the domination on the court was. Tech should have done better against the Lady Cardinals, but the taste of the Miami ‘L’ seemed to be a bit too overwhelming.
Advertisement
That set up the trip almost straight north along I-81 to be something of an absolute ‘must win’ for Megan Duffy’s Hokies. The problem facing them was that Syracuse was playing some premium basketball and sporting a 13-2 record. Now, they’d only played 1 ACC game, prior, so there was that caveat. Their non-conference win trail was still pretty impressive, though. It was really a reach down deep and pull out a solid performance for the team for this one.
The Game
The game ended up a chase for the Orange in the first minute of play. The last lead that they held was at the 9:01 point of the first quarter and that was 4-2. Right after that, Kilah Freelon scored a bucket on a layup to even it, and Mackie Nelson filched it on the exchange, and took the ball to the basket on a solo fast break. The Hokies went up 6-4 on that flip and kept themselves on the upside of the exchange with ‘Cuse managing to tie it up at 11 near the mid-point of the quarter.
Carleigh Wenzel, who had a great game this time, broke the tie by draining a trey, and the Hokies never really looked back from there (too hard, anyway). Even with a nearly 2-minute stall in scoring for the Hokies, they managed to keep the Orange from flipping the exchanges until Carys Baker dropped in a layup to knock the lid off the bucket for Tech. Samyha Suffren came off the bench and made her presence known with 4 of the final 6 points for the period. The horn sounded with Tech holding a 7-point lead, 22-15 and a bit of scoring momentum from Suffren’s final bucket of the period.
The second period featured some seriously good defense from the Hokies. They held the Orange to their initial 15 points until the period clock ticked down past 4 minutes. In the meantime the Hokies were scoring steadily. It’ wasn’t blazingly hot, ‘Cuse was pushing hard on defense, but it was a steady progression of won exchanges. What was really nice to see was Mackie Nelson finally putting up more shots. Nelson’s high percentage shooting is a major concern for opponents, and if she’s shooting enough and hitting, it’s just one more thing an opponent’s defense might not be able to account for. If her back court partner Wenzel is complementing that, this Hokie team can put up serious points. If you get Samyha off the bench to add some speed and quick hands the Lady Hokies are a match for most anyone. That reality came together in the 2nd quarter of the Syracuse game. The three guards accounted for all of the points in the 2nd quarter, except for a foul shot from Kayl Petersen.
Advertisement
Syracuse just got no traction, and the half wrapped up with lights flashing at the backboards and Tech up 35-23. But there was a bit of a worry for the Hokies. The first was the ghost of Miami and the second was the reminder of how it happened. Tech really didn’t score much in the final few minutes of the quarter, and ‘Cuse had dropped in the last three buckets on flipped exchanges. Tech needed to address that problem at halftime.
The Third Quarter Rules
I have visited my “Third Quarter Rule” so many times that maybe I need to get some sports AI to do a 10-year survey of the statistical math combined with some sort of momentum factor to actually put it in the books as a sports “rule”. This one was certainly another example of being on the good side of the rule. The unnuanced version is that the winner of the quarter is the probable winner of the game unless the 1st half was a total blowout. There are some nuances regarding momentum – like what popped up against Miami – but the rule, has basically held.
Advertisement
Well, the Hokies stayed on the good side of the third quarter rule for this contest. Remember 12 points isn’t too many foiled exchanges and a few three’s dropped into the bucket. Tech just kept scoring and playing solid defense. If they needed to play the exchange and get points back, they moved the ball down the court and got the points. They successfully flipped exchanges to put more of a point wedge between themselves and the Orange. Nothing says it more than Mackie Nelson pulling off her 2nd solo fast break off of a steal for the game.
The 3rd quarter wrapped, and it’s not certain that the Hokies really knew the score at the time. They were too busy playing the game and winning the exchanges. The score at the end had steadily put 21 points between the Hokies and the Orange at 62-41. Tech just had to keep up the even exchange in the 4th to grab the win.
The Ending Came with a Bit of Whimsy
Yes, the Orange won the quarter by a single point 15-16, but when you are 21 points behind that’s not going to do the job. As mentioned before, all Tech had to do was evenly exchange points with the Orange and the game was in the bag.
Advertisement
So, what’s the whimsy all about? For the final 1:44 seconds of the game the ACC had sisters on the court playing against each other. Mackie Nelson’s younger sister Camdyn came off the bench to do some court time against her big sister. X didn’t cover it much, but the stream did get some shots of smiles, and the accompanying human interest mentions. That could be an interesting matchup over the next few seasons since Mackie has two years of eligibility left after this season and her sister is a freshman.
But family whimsy or not, the end result of the game was an impressive appearance by the Hokies and what is considered a Quad 1 road win against a solid opponent.
Busy Stats Section this Time
Five Hokies scored in double figures for this one. There was no particularly dominant player, and Coach Duffy kept the bench pretty quiet for the contest. This was a game for the starting five and the ready bench and that only went one deep to Samyha Suffren for most of the game.
Advertisement
Carleigh Wenzel
Carleigh scored a team high 18 points but what made that even better was that she was hitting and that included a perfect 4-4 from downtown. Wenzel also pushed 5 assists, grabbed 6 boards (3 ORB, 3 DRB) and stole the ball. It’s her best game in a while and it’s really important to the team that she keep it up.
Samyha Suffren
Samyha played almost half the game off the bench. She scored 16 points on a 7-11 effort, and 3-4 free throws made. She also pulled down 2 rebounds, pushed out an assist, and stole the ball.
Mackie Nelson
Hey! Mackie was rolling on this one. Her 13 points came on 4 buckets on 8 attempts, and a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe. Those buckets included two really nifty steals followed by fast breaks and layups. Mackie also tied Carleigh for assists with 5, and 2 rebounds. Mackie was red hot on defense with two of her three steals going for solo fast break layups.
Carys Baker
How nice to see Carys getting back into double digits! This team needs her to do that for every game possible. Carys matched her CT Corner partner with 13 points one bucket coming from beyond the arc. She also pulled down 6 rebounds for the game.
Advertisement
Kilah Freelon
Kilah checked in with a solid performance in the paint. She put in 12 points and 6 rebounds. Four of those were all important offensive boards that allowed for putbacks. Freelon registered 2 blocks and 2 steals on defense.
Leila Wells, Kayl Petersen, Aniya Trent, and Mel Daley
Leila started but unfortunately didn’t score, but she contributed 3 rebounds and 2 assists. Kayl came off the bench for a total of six and a half minutes. She scored 3 points on a grand total of 2 attempts and 2 free throw shots (1 made). Aniya Trent will be someone to watch for; she scored 2 but only tried 2 shots and had a rebound. Mel played 8 minutes off the bench pushed out an assist and pulled down 2 boards.
The Wrap and What’s Next
This was actually truly a team effort. Five players scoring in double figures is almost always a guarantee of a win. Carleigh seemed to get unstuck, and Carys got some of her personal momentum back. This Quad 1 win might give the Lady Hokies a bit of a boost for the next contest.
Advertisement
Sunday at noon, the Boston College Lady Eagles come to Cassell Coliseum, and if the Hokies show up like they did in Syracuse, the hometown crowd is going to love it.
