Charlotte, NC - “Young team, big moment, big opportunity in women’s college hoops.”
With these words, Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy perfectly summarized a game where two inexperienced, power conference teams with new head coaches attempted to find their identities on a national stage.
Iowa and Virginia Tech took the court as the second leg of a double header at the Ally Tipoff in the Spectrum Center. Despite a competitive first half, Iowa (2-0) ran away to a 71-52 victory over Virginia Tech (1-1).
After an 80-76 shootout a year ago and high scoring affairs in both Iowa’s and Virginia Tech’s season opener, you could have been fooled into thinking this would be a run and gun style game.
Instead, it was quite the opposite. The two squads combined for 34 turnovers, 30 fouls, and shot just 21% from long range in a gritty, and sometimes ugly display of basketball.
Iowa’s defense needs to be given all sorts of credit for their performance. Iowa head coach Jan Jensen identified three keys to the game defensively.
“(We need to) limit threes, slow them down, and make sure (Matilda) Ekh doesn’t go crazy.”
In the end, the Hawkeyes checked every box.
Virginia Tech shot just 5/24 from long range as the Hokies had off nights for great shooters like Carys Baker, Matilda Ekh, and Carleigh Wenzel.
“That’s the game of basketball, sometimes,” Duffy said of the Hokies' rough shooting performance.
It’s tough to win games when your best shooters aren’t hitting their shots, but Iowa also deserves credit for forcing contested, off rhythm shots often at the end of the shot clock.
As Megan Duffy said after their win against UNCW, “oftentimes you can get threes off of paint touches,” and Iowa completely limited the Hokies paint touches.
After scoring a mind-boggling 68 points in the paint in their opener, Tech managed just 24 such points tonight; 20 less than the Hawkeyes. The Hokies guards were completely unable to get by their defenders and get to the hoop, which limited kick-out three opportunities, and forced Virginia Tech into some contested, off-the-dribble threes as the shot clock dwindled.
It is well-documented how much harder it is to shoot off the dribble versus off the catch, and the Hokies finished with just six assists. This isn’t the offense Megan Duffy wants to run, and Tech will never win games where they have less than 10 assists.
Based on the exhibition and the season opener, it seems clear that the Hokies are going to push the pace to generate offense this season. Especially without players such as Georgia Amoore and Elizabeth Kitley who can seemingly get a bucket at will, scoring before the opposing defense is set is more vital than ever.
Iowa completely took this away, allowing just four fast break points, despite turning it over 16 times. Some of that can be attributed to the Hokies taking some unfavorable bounces, and a lot of their forced turnovers not being live ball turnovers, however Iowa busted their tails getting back on defense, halting any fast break or even secondary break hopes.
In front all of Iowa’s other defensive goals was slowing down Matilda Ekh, whom Jan Jensen became familiar coaching against based on Ekh’s time at Michigan State.
“We really wanted to limit Ekh,” Jensen said. “I knew we couldn’t let Ekh get on a roll. That was first and foremost.”
When Ekh is knocking down shots, these Hokies are a completely different team as the entire floor opens up, but Iowa did as good of a job stopping Ekh as anyone has. Ekh finished with two points on 1/6 from the field including 0/4 from long range.
Beyond accomplishing their three main defensive goals, the Hawkeyes used their height advantage to out rebound the Hokies by an impressive 46-29 margin. Outside of Carleigh Wenzel grabbing seven boards, the only player that did a lot of work on the glass was Rose Micheaux, who couldn’t stay on the court due to foul trouble. Micheaux finished with 12 points and seven rebounds in just 20 minutes, and essentially provided the Hokies with their only consistent interior presence of the night.
Foul trouble was a struggle for more than just Micheaux. Six Hokies picked up at least two fouls, and most of them came in the first half, but the most damaging players to pick up fouls were Micheaux and Wenzel.
“Every game is called differently,” Duffy stated on the ticky-tack calls the refs were consistently calling. “Gotta find ways to adjust play style based on the games officiating and how many fouls you have.”
While the game was at times difficult to watch, there were some redeeming qualities to take away from their performance.
The Hokies showed life at the end of the second quarter, cutting the deficit to just four at the break. While it helped to knock down a few shots, the key to that run was the way the Hokies locked down on defense, holding the Hawkeyes scoreless for nearly the last three minutes of the half. Over this span, Tech did an excellent job both fronting the post, and providing backside help to keep the ball out of the paint.
While Iowa missed plenty of three pointers they’d like to get back, Virginia Tech deserves some credit for solid three-point coverage, forcing a 4/18 long range performance from Iowa.
Duffy said this would be a “measuring stick” game, and she certainly learned a lot about her squad. This defense has a chance to be very strong, as it was for stretches throughout the game, but the offense is going to be a work in progress against power conference opponents.
Megan Duffy and her squad will have a few days to work out the kinks before returning to Cassell Coliseum at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, November 13 against UNC Asheville.
