Blacksburg, VA - Following a 1-2 stretch against three straight power conference teams, the Hokies needed a game to get their feet back under them prior to ACC play.
That’s exactly what Virginia Tech (8-3) got for their December 15th matchup against a simply outmatched Radford (1-10) team, as the Hokies ran away with a 73-34 win.
Despite the absence of backup guard Samyha Suffren, the Hokies' pressure, speed and, most of all, physicality proved to be way too much for the Highlanders to handle.
“Outside of our game against Duke, Virginia Tech has been probably the most physical team we’ve played,” said Radford head coach Mike McGuire.
After falling behind 6-3 with 7:35 to go in the first quarter, the Hokies rattled off a 46-6 run across the rest of the first half and into the third quarter, claiming a 49-12 lead after that run.
This run was kickstarted on the defensive end as the Hokies forced 20 turnovers and only allowed the Highlanders to shoot 22% from the field.
“We were trying to blow up a few of their cuts and motion actions,” Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy said. “The third quarter was a little bit of a lull, but overall I liked the effort and consistency.”
The 34 points the Hokies held Radford to is the least Virginia Tech has allowed their opponent to score since March 17, 2023, when the Final Four bound Hokies beat 16 seed Chattanooga 58-33 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Looking towards the offensive end, this was actually Tech’s lowest scoring game against a non-power conference opponent all season. Still, there were multiple positives. Two of those positives go by the names of Carleigh Wenzel and Lani White.
“It’s really cool to watch her offensive progression,” Duffy said of White. “She’s always been a three level scorer.”
White went for a career high 23 points, including 3/3 from long range. While White has long had the skills for performances like these, she now has the confidence and the chemistry with her teammates to make them happen.
Wenzel had easily her best shooting game of the season, knocking down six of her eight three point attempts on the way to 22 points. This included four threes over a six minute stretch between the end of the second and start of the third quarter.
After the brief slow start in the first quarter, Wenzel was one of the main catalysts to the Hokies returning to form and dominating the last three and a half quarters. The biggest part to that change for Wenzel was “settling down and understanding how we wanted the game to go”.
Once the Hokies settled in, they had success both pushing the pace to score on the secondary fastbreak and finding open shooters and driving lanes in the half court set. The Highlanders tried zone and man defenses, but none of them worked. With Wenzel and White spotting up and knocking down shots, Mackenzie Nelson got to be their table setter, tallying a career high nine assists.
Even though Radford isn’t the same level as competition the Hokies will soon be playing in conference action, it was good for them to pick up a good win during a difficult time for all the athletes with it being finals week. The physicality and grit this team showed should transfer over even against power conference opponents.
“Maybe we learned a few things from Duke who were so physical with us,” Duffy said. “We tried to take a page from them.”
The Hokies next game is at noon on Saturday, December 21 as they host the Campbell Camels (5-4). That will be their last game before ACC action resumes in the new year.
