Virginia Tech (4-1) overcame a cold shooting first half to hand Rutgers (4-1) their first loss of the season with a 91-80 victory in Cassell Coliseum.
“We missed a lot of easy baskets in the first half,” head coach Megan Duffy said of the Hokies' first half offensive struggles. “(Rose Micheaux) missed a couple bunnies and chippies. Carleigh (Wenzel) was a little off, too. (She) got some good looks that just didn’t go in.”
At halftime, the score was 36 a piece, which actually wasn’t a bad result given the Hokies two top scorers in Wenzel and Micheaux were a combined 3/24 from the floor.
“They were resilient when it got a little rough and got a little tough,” Duffy said. After the cold first half, Wenzel (19 points) got it going with a couple threes in the third quarter when Rutgers was threatening to pull away.
This set up the first tight fourth quarter in the Megan Duffy era, and to say the team responded would be an understatement.
Rutgers used a Destiny Adams layup to take a one-point lead with 5:24 to go. From there, it was all Virginia Tech.
The Hokies rattled off 12-straight points in the next two and a half minutes to blow the game open to 11 points and force a Scarlet Knights timeout. Wenzel ran the show, scoring seven points in the last six minutes to help the Hokies seal the deal, but backup point guard Samyha Suffren made plays right alongside her on her way to a career-high 16 points. Suffren pushed the pace after a rare Kiyomi McMiller missed three, and took it all the way in for an acrobatic and-one lefty layup, putting her team up double-digits and making the crowd go wild.
“I got my first experience of the real Cassell with the fans going crazy in the fourth quarter,” Duffy said of the atmosphere following Suffren’s coast to coast and-one.
The other player who made her presence felt in the late game run was last year’s star against Rutgers, Matilda Ekh.
Ekh (13 points) got back-to-back baskets, working her way to the hoop for a lefty scoop layup before knocking down a pull up mid range off an on-ball screen. While she has continued to struggle from three-point range (5/20 on the season), Ekh has a lot more she can offer than just long range shooting.
“One of her goals this year was to add three levels to her game,” Duffy said. “I know she wants to knock down the three, but I’m not worried about that because I know it’s coming.” When Ekh’s three ball starts falling, she will be dangerous given she’s already averaging double digits with a struggling jumpshot.
All in all, it was a gritty “character win,” according to Rose Micheaux who grabbed a career high 17 boards to go along with her 16 points.
“We’re only as good as our weakest person,” Micheaux said. “Even if we get punched, we can come back from any adversity and that’s what we did.”
Despite their youth, Megan Duffy is getting great minutes from all eight players she has in the rotation. Four players got into double figures, and everyone who played had at least five points. Better yet, the entire rotation has the athleticism and desire to compete on the defensive end.
This was on full display as the Hokies forced 20 turnovers and dominated the glass, grabbing 21 offensive rebounds and winning the overall battle on the boards by eight. Better yet, Carys Baker and the swarming Hokies held the country’s leading scorer, Destiny Adams, to her lowest point total since her first game, scoring 18 points and grabbing just six rebounds.
There’s an old saying that iron sharpens iron, and there’s no better way for Duffy to test the caliber of her team, than seeing them matchup against other high level opponents.
“I think it’s great to play other P4 (Power Four) schools to prepare for ACC play,” Duffy said. “I thought some of the mistakes we made in the Iowa game, we overcame today.
As a coach, all you can ask for, especially out of a young team, is constant improvement, and this performance was undoubtedly a big step up compared to their other power conference game against the Hawkeyes.
The Hokies will get a few days to continue learning and improving before taking on the Elon Phoenix (3-1) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 23rd at Cassell Coliseum.
