The Lady Hokies have put 6 W’s in a row on the scoreboard, and this last one wasn’t pretty, but it pushes their ACC record to 7-3. There are many ways to win a basketball game. Grabbing the lead, early and staying ahead in a close contest is certainly one of them.
How the Hokies Got to this Season’s Home Stretch
The coach mystique mixed with the appearance of superstar players attracts a large amount of polling attention. It took a while, but the prior coach managed to build that rep, boosted by two superstar players who grabbed national attention. When he blew town, the Hokies were left on the basement floor of the PR battle of the rankings. That’s when small miracles occur. When you are sitting on the cold floor of the basement with nothing much left around you but a few odds and ends.
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The 2024-2025 Women’s team was a rescue mission for Whit Babcock and his new hire, a modestly well-known coach from a decent quality Catholic College program, Marquette. Megan Duffy’s first and most daunting hill to climb in taking over the reins of the Virginia Tech Hokies WBB program wasn’t wins and losses on the court. It was in assembling a team that could, at least, show up for game days. Every coach has his or her quirks, but the prior regime defined the short bench 2-tiered approach to building a team. There were the favorites who played nearly all of the time and then there were the supporting cast players who might or might not break into the upper tier. It worked for as long as those upper tier players were stars.
The problem was transition, and what players were left over from the old system who could form a team that could play at least par basketball. After assembling what turned out to be a superior staff of assistants (including former Wake HC Jen Hoover) Megan Duffy’s first major victory was in winning the confidence of those players and teaching them her way of playing basketball. She retained experienced solid quality players with a sprinkling of natural leaders. She kept most of the young players on the squad and convinced the players on the Tier 1/Tier 2 edge of the old system to stick with the program instead of bolting for the door. The reality of that first season of the Duffy era was that it was a solid victory all the way around. It turned that basement into a real foundation.
This team is fundamentally different than the prior regime’s. There are no dominant “superstars”, but there are solid unselfish leaders combined with enthusiastic talented young players, and some timely transfers. This team has taken a huge step up, and that is with the core players all being “underclassmen”.
The Pitt Game Shines a Light
Well, you can smile and say that the January 29th game – which celebrated the 5oth anniversary of Hokie Women’s Basketball- at Cassell Coliseum was an ACC win. You can say that it was supposed to be since Pitt is scrappy with some good players but struggling. You can say lots of those media analyst things in some quick summary paragraph before skipping to the favorite programs, but you’d be missing something big.
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It was a tougher mid-week game than expected. Neither team seemed to be finding the bucket, consistently and it was obvious that the game was going to be a grinder from the opening tip. There were no sausage biscuits from BoJangles for this contest. The light that shone was on the team. 10 players got floor time in a close contest. 9 of them scored and/or contributed something for their minute totals. Carleigh Wenzel, Carys Baker, and Kilah Freelon scored in double figures. Kilah pounded the boards to put a double-double on her stats sheet. But what made the difference were those critical off-the-bench buckets, and solid foul shooting.
The Game
How about an old-fashioned formula for victory? Get ahead and stay there. This one had to be the exemplar of that rule of sports. But it was sputtery doing it. The first quarter opened with a missed shot by both teams. Carleigh Wenzel opened the scoring with a short jumper on an assist from Mackie Nelson. Then Kilah Freelon blocks a shot on the exchange Carys Baker grabs the ball and Freelon makes it down the court to score the bucket. Then crickets chirp for a minute and a half at 4-0. Pitt broke the spell for themselves and went on a bit of a tear over the next few exchanged, and passed the Hokies to go up 7-4, the last bucket was a trey.
That seemed to put a bit of a charge into the Hokie squad, because Carleigh came right back and drained one from downtown to even it up at 7. Just over a minute later, after some flubbed exchanges by both squads, the Lady Panthers went up 9-7 on two free-throws by Pitt’s star player Mikayla Johnson. That didn’t last long, though. Mel Daley tied it back up with a quick exchange, and then Carys Baker drained a three-pointer to take a 12-9 lead for the Hokies.
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That was the 3:57 mark of the 1st period, and also was the final time that Pitt had the lead or a tie. The Hokies would manage to stay ahead for the remainder of the contest. The 1st quarter scoring didn’t pick up much pace from that point, but when the lights and horn sounded to end the first 10, the Hokies had a five-point lead, 16-11.
One Big Run and then Staying with the Exchange
Instead of runs and shot accuracy, the Hokies were winning on persistence on offense, and solid defense. The coaches will be talking to players about refocusing on shooting technique and maybe cooling it a bit on the downtown shots for better, higher percentage, opportunities inside. The one thing that they won’t be spending much “learning” time with will be effective defense. Tech seems to have found a bit of a niche with that where they knuckle down on defense if the lid is on the basket for them.
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This game did not feature too many big offensive runs. Pitt was playing tough, tight defense (complaints were heard from the Cassell Guard regarding that ‘style’ of defending) and Tech was matching. With the exception of a single run for the Hokies in the 2nd, this was a game of fighting to stay on the exchange until the final five minutes. That also meant that Coach Duffy was substituting deep into her bench very early in the contest, and she kept it up for the entire game.
The big issue to note is that with the exception of the last few minutes of the game, Tech stayed ahead by multiple buckets, but that gap was never very large, and the Hokies’ largest lead, 17 points, happened just before the game ended.
You wouldn’t characterize the win as the “run away and hide” sort of get ahead and stay ahead. The Hokies never really put away the Panthers until late in the 4th quarter, and that was probably abetted by their critical loss of their star player (and game high scorer at 21 points) Mikayla Johnson who fouled with 3:23 left in the 4th quarter. At that point of the contest, Pitt was only down 5 points (55-50), which is next to nothing with time on the clock in basketball. The loss of Johnson seemed to pull the slats out from under the Pitt offense. They wouldn’t score again in the quarter.
The Hokies, on the other hand, didn’t stop playing basketball. Pitt tried to stop them, but a 12-0 run in that final 3:23, ending with a pair of free-throws by Mackie Nelson opened the lead to the final score as the closing horn sounded. Tech found itself up 17 points, and sporting an ACC record that should be surprising the media that had been casually dismissing the Hokies after the first two games of 2026.
Statistical Highlights
Kilah Freelon
Kilah heads up the stats list because she not only scored in double figures at 10 points, but pulled down 11 rebounds for a double-double. The big part was that five of that 11 boards were off of the offensive side of the court, which means critical put backs can happen. In addition to the points and rebounds, Kilah played the most time at 34 and a half minutes. She also had 3 blocks and steal on defense.
Carleigh Wenzel
Carleigh scored a team high 17 points with a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe. Wenzel also dished out 3 assists to help the offense. On defense she made 2 rebounds, blocked two shots, and stole the ball once. In a tight game those sorts of plays flip exchanges or spoil infant runs. As noted by Hokie Sports it’s also her sixth game scoring in double figures. It seems to not be coincidence that Tech has also won its last six games.
Carys Baker
Carys might not be completely fond of her 13-point scoring effort for this one. The lid was frustratingly on for most of the game for her. But Carys is a leader and a superior basketball player. That means that she found many other important ways to get significant work in for the game. Baker’s 13 points were complimented with a near double figure 9 rebound effort seven of those were critical rally snuffing defensive rebounds. She also had 2 blocks and a steal on defense. One thing is that maybe she’s finally getting the notice that she’s richly deserved over the last season and a half.
The Stat Chart for the Team
|
Number |
Name |
Minutes |
Points |
Field Goals |
Free-Throws |
Rebounds |
Fouls |
Assists |
Blocks |
Steals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
Carleigh Wenzel |
7:44 |
17 |
6-18 |
4-4 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
10 |
Carys Baker |
7:08 |
13 |
3-13 |
5-6 |
9 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
0 |
Kilah Freelon |
10:34 |
10 |
5-8 |
0-0 |
11 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
|
3 |
Mackenzie Nelson |
5:57 |
7 |
2-9 |
3-4 |
3 |
2 |
5 |
0 |
3 |
|
2 |
Leila Wells |
18:31 |
2 |
1-3 |
0-0 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
12 |
Samyha Suffren |
23:26 |
8 |
3-9 |
2-3 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
21 |
Mel Daley |
16:21 |
6 |
3-5 |
0-0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
34 |
Kayl Petersen |
8:52 |
2 |
1-3 |
0-0 |
4 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
|
30 |
Aniya Trent |
3:23 |
2 |
1-1 |
0-0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
24 |
Amani Jenkins |
2:03 |
0 |
0-0 |
0-0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Totals |
67 |
25 – 69 |
14 – 17 |
42 |
13 |
13 |
8 |
10 |
It’s important to note the contributions of the other players.
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Mackie Nelson pushed out a team high 5 assists but was also critical on defense with a team high 3 steals. She did score 7 with 3 of those points being from the charity stripe. Samyha Suffren just keeps making a huge difference off of the bench the put up 8 points for the game. She stole the ball twice and pulled down two boards. Even freshmen Amani Jenkins and Aniya Trent got court time in a tight game. Kayl Petersen continues to make her mark and establish herself within the system. She scored 2 points but only on 3 shots. She also pulled down four boards and stole the ball twice.
This was a real team win.
Sunday is Grudge Day
The Lady Wahoos come to visit on Sunday. Tech split the home and away from last season with a loss here, and a win there. Let’s see the Hokies take the series and the season finale in JPJ to ice their case for the Big Show in March.
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