Virginia Tech Women’s Basketball Pulls Off a Ten-Point Comeback. Beats Clemson: 71-68

It was the Carys and Carleigh masterpiece comeback of the season. The Hokies make up a 10-point deficit in the last five minutes of the game to score the final four points and beat the Clemson Lady Tigers 71-68. Both of them pass the 20-point mark and overcome a double-digit deficit in the final five minutes. This is one the team will remember and hopefully feeds on.

Sometimes Rules are Meant to be Broken

The “Third Quarter Rule” is a pretty firm and fast observational nod to the functional outcome of most basketball games. The team with the positive momentum and/or the lead, at the end of the third quarter (or first half of the 2nd half for the men), almost always wins the game. The key to the Clemson game, this time, was the equivocation of ‘almost’. Maybe something was hidden in the energy or the urgency that was critical at the end of the 3rd quarter, but as the horn sounded with only 10 minutes remaining in the game and a break to talk about it, the Lady Hokies were not in really great shape.

The Hokies Led at the End of a Worryingly Slow 1st Quarter

Tech’s been ‘slow starting’ quite a bit this year. It’s a concern that has popped up in many a conversation with Hokie women’s basketball fans, but most of the time the situation is usually accompanied by an equally slow start from the opponents. The Lady Hokies’ defense has been getting much better over the course of the season, so even with some of their scoring glue-ups, they’ve managed to keep the other teams from taking advantage. Tech managed to get that done in the first for the Clemson game, but neither team was looking particularly dominant as the horn and lights went off on the 1st.

There were some flashes of things to come in the first, though. Carys was a definite presence inside, and Carleigh was back to her usual confident self for this one. The two upperclassmen really needed to lead the way in this game, and they certainly did that job, very well. The 17-13 Tech lead at the end of the period might have been the best indicator of what it would be at the end of the contest.

With the Second, Came the Concern

The issue wasn’t that the Hokies were playing poorly. Clemson was playing max pressure, and the crowd was making the refs know that they weren’t calling obvious fouls on the Lady Tigers, but Tech’s offense just hit a dead spot (another shooting drought – they really have to fix those) in the 2nd quarter, and Clemson managed to wrestle (probably an apt use of the word) the lead away from the Hokies as 4 minutes passed. The Lady Tigers kept scoring but Tech was stuck at 25 points for a very concerning 2 1/2 minutes or so. Carleigh Wenzel’s pull up 2-pointer broke the ice a bit, but only Carys Baker and a bucket and a foul shot from Mel Daley were putting points on the board to go with it.

The big problem is that other obvious offensive contributors were just not scoring. Mackie Nelson, who doesn’t shoot enough anyway, was frozen out. Kilah Freelon, who is the closest player to a long-term post wasn’t managing to hit more than two free-throws in the quarter. We’ll see in the stats, that she got unstuck, but Freelon was not shooting much at all.

Some of those problems might be buried in the foul numbers for each team. There isn’t too much doubt that between Clemson HC (former Tech assistant) Shawn Poppie’s rep with close defense, and a certain graduate assistant famous for tight defense who made a re-appearance at her former home court in the wrong school colors… Clemson was pushing hard, and the foul numbers show it.

The first half ended with the Hokies trailing and not managing to really put a significant dent in the Clemson lead. Tech wasn’t out of it completely. It was only a 6-point spread, but the Hokies needed a few defensive stops and flipped exchanges to make up the difference at 33-39.

The Critical 3rd Looked Dire at the Horn

Nobody is fooling anyone. The third quarter started and finished with Clemson in good control of the game even if the score differential was only 6, the Hokies just didn’t seem to be able to get a run going enough to narrow the gap through the first five minutes of the 3rd. Yes, they were hanging in there, and Clemson just couldn’t put them away, but the Hokies also weren’t making up ground.

The near disastrous stall started at the 5:11 mark when Carleigh missed a free-throw, Clemson got the rebound and turned an unfortunate ring out into 2 points. What followed was some 3 and a 1/2 minutes of Tech turnovers and missed shots. Clemson wasn’t putting together much in the way of big runs, but they were scoring steadily. Thankfully Tech stopped the bleeding with 1:15 in the quarter, by keeping Clemson away from the bucket, while the Hokies made up three critical points.

It was still a dauting 10-point deficit (59-49) at the end of the 3rd, and that usually spells big trouble for the remainder of the game. At that point many teams fold in frustration, exhaustion, or a combination of both. Add to that, the Hokies were sporting a pile of personal fouls on their starters which meant playing a bit too gingerly to make bold plays. Bravely fouling out wasn’t an option, here. The little bump came from Samyha Suffren scoring the final point from the free-throw line, to get the score back to manageable.

The End that Wasn’t

Who knows? That might have been the pivot point in the Tech attitude toward the game. They weren’t going away on the Lady Tigers. Clemson would have to deal with Tech all the way to the end of the contest. The not so magic secret of the 3rd quarter was that Clemson just couldn’t put the Hokies away. The reality of basketball is that 10 points is just three or four baskets from being an exchange fight of a few points.

It would take the Hokies about half of the 4th quarter to make that clear. The first big move was a brave one on the part of Coach Duffy and staff. They threw caution to the wind and put their starters back into the lineup along with Samyha, even though they were all sporting some serious foul baggage.

The turning point seemed to come at five minutes, and 31 seconds left in the quarter. Carys Baker dropped in a layup that got the Hokies scoring from the floor. Up to that point they’d only been scoring on free throws. Meanwhile, on the defensive side of the court, the Hokies were managing to really radically slow down the Clemson offense with pressure, Clemson missing shots, getting hit with turnover inducing fouls, and turning it over live. Once the Hokies caught on offense, and managed to maintain their defensive pressure, the scoring started to narrow up quickly.

The entire reality of the game settled on four players, and the fourth wouldn’t be too much of a surprise. Samyha Suffren came off the bench, again, to make a huge difference. Not only did she significantly impact the energy and scoring for the team, but she was a critical part of the 4th quarter run and hit the critical three-pointer that put the Hokies within a bucket of the lead with the 4th quarter clock burning down past 1:30, and the Hokies finally within striking distance of the Tigers.

Suffren would score the next four points for the Hokies as they managed to keep stopping the Tigers from evening the exchange. It wasn’t pretty, though. Those four points were made up in what looked like a brawl going on.

The next boost came when Carys Baker drained another of her three-pointers right around the 3:oo mark. That made the score 60-65 after a quick bucket from Clemson, but the Lady Tigers were running out of offensive steam. They would score their final three points of the game in the next two exchanges, and Carleigh Wenzel would cooly drop two free-throws in from the stripe. The issue for Clemson became their own foul troubles, and a definite conversion of the Hokies hit and miss foul shooting from the first half, to hitting almost all of their charity shots.

With about 2 minutes on the clock, Carys Baker drained her two foul shots to get the Hokies to within 4 points of the Tigers. Those were critical points. Clemson’s offense had practically disappeared in the final four minutes of the game, and the Hokies had gotten their core three players for the game on a roll. The play that set up the ending came from Samyha and Carys. With a minute and 32 seconds left on the clock, and no time for searching for just the right shot, Suffren got herself in the open just outside the arc, and Carleigh found her in the open, snapped off a clean pass, and Samyha drained it. The Hokies were within a point at 68-67, and there was time on the clock. There was also the issue of keeping the Lady Tigers from putting the ball in the bucked and negating that beautiful play from Wenzel and Suffren.

That’s when Carys, with a block and a defensive rebound off of it, got the ball out and chased it down the court. It took three total shot attempts and a concerted effort by the Hokies to pound the offensive boards, but eventually Baker would grab a quick short pass from Carleigh and drop it in from 6 feet to pass the Tigers on the scoreboard, 69-68.

The hitch was that Carys’s go-ahead bucket was done with 11 seconds left on the game ticker, and that is an eternity in basketball and unless it’s scored with no time left on the clock, a one-point lead is an iffy thing. That meant the Hokies needed to come up with something positive for themselves, and hopefully negative for the Lady Tigers at the same time. That opportunity came with one second left on the clock.

Carleigh Wenzel was fouled and Tech was in a bonus situation, so when she walked up to the charity stripe, she needed to slam the door on anything miraculous done by the Tigers with their one second left and a timeout to shorten the court. Wenzel nailed both of her free-throws. That wasn’t a win in the pocket, but it was really close. All Tech had to do was foil the inbounds pass attempt and the game would end on a major Hokie 4th quarter comeback.

Clemson subbed in, made a pass that missed and flew out of bounds… and it was all over. The Lady Hokies posted their 5th ACC win of the season. The Lady Hokies are now 15-5 overall, and a solid 5-3 in the ACC. It’s not the top, but it’s in good shape for the back side run of the 2026 half of the season. This win should be a huge confidence boost, and most certainly will put teams on notice that the Lady Hokies are going to find some way to win.

Significant Statistics

Carys Baker

Baker has risen to the top of the roster in so many good ways. She’s a team leader, a critical presence inside, and maintains her outside shooting excellence. It’s really difficult for the team to win if Carys is having an off day. She also has a really positive effect on her teammates. In this one, along with Carleigh who’s next on the list, it’s become abundantly clear that Carys Baker has become a significant leadership factor on the team. For the Clemson game, Baker played nearly the entire contest. She was 5-13 from the floor and 2-4 from downtown. Those were good numbers, yes, not stellar but solid. Where Carys really shined offensively in this one was from the free-throw line at 8-9. To go with that 24-point offensive performance Baker pulled down 4 offensive boards to go with her 4 defensive rebounds. She pushed out an assist and had a block and a steal on defense. It was a stellar game for Carys Baker, and one that should get her more notice at the national level. Hokie Nation already knows how good she is.

Carleigh Wenzel

Okay, if you understand the role of Carys in all of this, you have to nod to the Texas side of the house as Carleigh Wenzel has seemingly re-discovered her stride over the past few games. Wenzel also scored 24 points in this one. It’s important to note that at 8-14, Wenzel was actually 5-7 from inside the arc, along with dropping in 3 of 7 from beyond it. She was also 5-6 from the charity stripe, and as noted above, two of those shots were the critical door closers with 1 second left on the clock. Carleigh also pulled down 3 defensive rebounds and blocked a shot on defense. She pushed out 2 assists, one of which was the critical feed to Samyha Suffren that put the Hokies in position to pull ahead for the win.

Samyha Suffren

It’s beginning to get interesting counting the number of times that Coach Duffy has altered the flow of the game by supercharging the offense and defense by sending Suffren in from the ready bench. She has lightning quick hands on defense and can score on breaks at any time. There has always been the hint that she can hit from outside, but she just doesn’t seem to make that a big part of her game. Samyha dropped in 12 points for this one which included the critical three-pointer on a feed from Carleigh that pulled Tech to within a single point of the Tigers. Suffren also pulled down 6 boards with 3 ORBs and 3 DRBs.

Kilah Freelon

Kilah just didn’t shoot very much. She took a grand total of 3 shots from the floor, making one. She was 6 of 7 from the stripe to give her a total of 8 points. She pushed out 2 assists and pulled down a critical 4 offensive boards to go with her 5 defensive rebounds. That total of 9 led the team. She also stole the ball once on defense. Even without double figures, Freelon figured greatly in this contest where defense inside was critical.

Mel Daley and the Remainder of the Live Bench

Mel Daley scored 3 points with a rebound and a steal.

No one else scored points, Mackie Nelson was bound up in defense and unfortunately isolated by the refs because she, along with almost all of the starters ended up in foul trouble, early. Mackie finished with three assists and a steal. Leila Wells contributed four rebounds and a steal. Aniya Trent did get some court time to contribute 2 steals to the effort (there’s a rising star there).

There is Not Enough Bragging Possible

Let’s let Evan Hughes revisit that 69th point by Carys Baker (assist by Carleigh Wenzel) that won the game for the Hokies.

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