The “Third Quarter Rule” applied to the Lady Hokies in a big way as they pass Stanford with blazingly hot shooting and then held on to the lead until the final horn. Carys Baker shines with a season high 24 points. Five Hokies were in double figures; Carys, Kilah Freelon, Carleigh Wenzel, Mackie Nelson, and Mel Daley. Coach Duffy used nearly everyone for some time on the court, and the Hokies take home a critical W.
Even Start, but a Rocket Hot Finish
The quarter breakdown isn’t particularly important or instructive for this one, when it comes to the first half, anyway. This game started out its first two quarters as an actual 3-point differential duel to the halftime horn. The end game stats show that the lead changed 14 times during the entire game, and most of those changes came in the first and second quarters. The reality of basketball is which team is on top of the points exchange, and for the first half, Stanford managed to be the last team to score.
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What also became apparent was that Virginia Tech was quietly building momentum. The shot percentage improvement between the 1st and 2nd quarters was noticeable for the Hokies. Tech taking shots in the first, but only hitting about a third of them (6-17 for 35%), and to go with it they hadn’t attempted many three-pointers (2). The Hokies didn’t manage to get past the Cardinal for the quarter, but they did knot it up at 20 briefly, and Stanford could never build up any offense/defense balance to put any distance between the two teams.
The momentum notes of the quarter, and probably the game, were two critical three’s by Carleigh and Carys. The first, by Wenzel, chopped off the largest Stanford lead of the game at 5 to squeeze it back to 2-points.
The second was that the final bucket of the period were scored by Carys Baker from downtown. The first one by Wenzel stopped a rally in a low scoring game. The second one closed out the half with an emphatic warning that Tech’s outside shooting was beginning to warm up, and Baker was determined to make a difference.
The Pass and the Lead
The third quarter started with Carys Baker, just like the end, only Baker put it in from the paint this time. That also tied the score at 34 to start the period. After a 1 hit one miss foul shot series, Stanford was back in the lead, but that didn’t last long. Carleigh hit a trey, but then they did. That seemed to be enough of a momentum shift, though, because Carys drained another one from downtown. Momentum is a shifty thing, and sometimes it’s just a feeling of difference. Even with the Cardinal managing to keep pushing the lead back, Tech was on the positive side of the point exchange, finally.
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Mackie Nelson broke the exchange with a layup on an assist by Carleigh after Wenzel blocked a shot and then fed Nelson a beautiful look-off feed under the bucket for a layup.
The Hokies took the lead with 6:26 on the 3rd quarter clock (44-42) and started flipping the possessions. Carleigh would drain another three, after Mackie’s defensive rebound. Kilah checked in on the rally with a layup from the post, and then Mackie stole the ball and then put back a 2 from the paint off of a Mel Daley offensive rebound.
Carys would hit another three, Mel hit a floater, and then Mackie laid it in again. The horn on the quarter ended the flurry of scoring and defensive plays but Baker’s final 2 points from inside made an emphatic statement. The Lady Hokies weren’t going to allow Stanford to get closer than they had.
Sealing the Deal
Once a team has a multi-bucket lead in a close game, the big “trick” is just to keep the exchange going and not allow the gap to narrow. That truth is much easier typed than done, but it is critical to winning the game after a hard charge in the 3rd quarter. The first half of the 4th went pretty much to that particular pattern. Of course, Carys Baker had to repeat her 2nd quarter to 3rd quarter feat of being the last and then the first to score.
Carys missed the free throw (and 4-point play) after hitting the floor pretty hard on the foul she drew on the shot, but that effort off of the defensive stop set the tone for the period. Right around the normal media timeout, just past the 5-minute mark, Mackie drained her only three-point attempt and pushed the Tech lead out to 15 points. (Look at the big smile on her face after hitting that one.) Suddenly the Lady Hokies were cruising.
Even Kayl Petersen had participated in that score build up with some quality floor time and 2 points. The steady push had resulted in a completely different game feel. Tech was staying ahead, and even gaining a few points here and there.
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Mackie scored Tech’s final two points from the charity stripe to push the total to 79. Stanford got credit for the final bucket of the game, but it was pretty meaningless with the final score at the last horn being a solid 79-67 Hokie win.
Significant Game Stats
With five players in double figures, there is a whole lot of love to go around on this one, but the ACC Network was forced to recognize the complete effort by Carys Baker the added bonus is the other half of the Connecticut Corner, Mackenzie Nelson, scored in double digits and led the team in assists. It’s just one more proof that when those two are hot, this team can win anything.
Carys Baker
The full details of Baker’s effort put things in a bit better perspective. She played a lead role in both inside and outside game play. Baker was a blistering hot 10-15 from the floor and that included 4 three-pointers. If she wasn’t inside making points, she was outside doing it, too. She also added 2 assists on offense. Carys also put up defensive numbers. She pulled down 7 defensive rebounds, and a blocked shot. Baker’s 24-point effort was critical to the Hokies maintaining momentum.
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Kilah Freelon
Her name keeps popping up, even when the points don’t get into double digits (15). Kilah played a balanced game for this one. She held down the post, pulled down 5 boards, 3 of which were ORBs. She also blocked 2 shots. Kilah did get whistled for 4 fouls, but that was more indicative of the heavy activity going on around the bucket. Freelon plays full out, so those sorts of calls are going to happen.
Carleigh Wenzel
Carleigh is still having some issues with inside shooting but put up enough including 9-points off of a solid 3-6 from downtown, to score 13 total. Wenzel dished 5 assists in the game and pulled down 4 defensive boards. Carleigh also had that block that came from the momentum shifting fast break to Mackie in the 3rd.
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Mackie Nelson
Mackie needs to show up in double figures for every game (13 for this one). To do that she needs to shoot more and also hit. This one was one of “those” games where even with only taking 8 total shots, Nelson scored in all three phases. She was a perfect 2-2 from the charity stripe to end the game. She dropped in her only attempt at a three and was a solid 4-7 from the floor. Mackie also led the team in assists with 7 and played solid defense with 5 of six rebounds being DRBs, and a steal. What’s more is that Nelson played the most number of minutes for the Hokies.
Mel Daley
Many times, when Coach Duffy wants to put a charge into the Hokie offense she’ll sub in Samyha Suffren, but this time, she put Mel Daley on the floor, and Daley set about to make a big difference on both sides of the ball with her time (a bit more than half the game, btw) Mel scored 10 points off the bench with 4 critical offensive rebounds and an assist. Mel managed a blocked shot to show up some defensive stats, too.
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Samyha Suffren and Kayl Petersen
Coach seemed to keep both of these players in her back pocket for the game, but they contributed when their time came to play. Samyha scored a 2-pointer, pushed out an assist, and did her quick defensive “thing” with 3 defensive rebounds and 2 steals. Kayl made the most of her minutes, too. She was 1-1 from the floor and grabbed 2 rebounds.
Sophie Swanson, Leila Wells (who stared and was pulled for some reason), and Aniya Trent got some playing time in a tight game.
Next Up
The team transitions from Standford to Berkley to take on Cal on Sunday for a 5pm tip. That’s 2:00 out there but it made the night game last night really difficult for those of us on the actual Eastern Time Zone.
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