Carys Baker’s 23 point double-double leads Virginia Tech to a 68-64 win against the Florida Gators (8-2) in Cassell Coliseum on Thursday, Dec. 4.
Virginia Tech (7-2) joined Syracuse and SMU as the only ACC victors in this year’s ACC/SEC Challenge.
Tech is now 2-1 in three years since the installment of the challenge, with a 70-61 win at Georgia last season and a 82-64 loss at No. 7 LSU Tigers, featuring Angel Reese and Hailey Van Lith, the year prior.
After falling short in the clutch in their losses to both JMU and BYU, the Hokies executed down the stretch on Thursday.
“The defensive side (in the last six minutes) was great,” said Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy. “Better than it was all season…We’ve been really trying to study how to limit some of those mistakes at the end of the game.”
With 6:04 remaining, the game was tied at 57 - one of 12 ties in a game that also included 12 lead changes.
Mel Daley then went on a personal 4-0 run, knocking down two free throws before faking a handoff and going backdoor for the deuce off a beautiful feed from Aniya Trent. Daley, who went for a season-high 24 against Oregon State on Saturday, finished with 12 in a less efficient 4-for-14 outing.
The following possession, Carleigh Wenzel picked Me’Arah Oneal’s pockets and chucked it up the floor to Carys Baker for a breakaway layup. This put Virginia Tech up 63-57 with 3:57 to spare - a margin matching its second largest lead of the tightly-contested game.
A Liv McGill triple cut the lead to single digits, but Trent responded with a putback layup off of Baker’s missed floater.
Trent, a true freshman center who had never played significant minutes in a close game, got an opportunity due to Kilah Freelon’s foul trouble. She finished with seven points and five rebounds on a perfect 3-for-3 shooting in 16 minutes.
“She’s just a worker,” Baker said of Trent. “We knew that her process was going to come to light somehow and it did today, so I was proud of her. I think I was more proud of her than anything.”
Trent’s late bucket put the Hokies up five, allowing for Daley and Mackenzie Nelson free throws to seal the deal.
Virginia Tech shot only 40% from the field and 20% from long range, but it had much better ball movement than Florida. The Hokies finished with 16 assists and 16 turnovers - not ideal but far better than Florida’s 9-22 assist/turnover ratio.
As always, the Gators offense ran completely through one player: Liv McGill.
McGill is third in the country in scoring at almost 27 points per game. Her usage rate sits at 36.9 - an almost unfathomable stat that would put her above Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo as the highest usage players in the NBA.
McGill finished with 30 points and three assists, but the counting stats don’t do the Hokies justice for the way they defended one of the nation’s top scorers.
“She ended up with 30, but it wasn’t an easy 30,” Nelson said. “It was hard. We worked all week on being able to make her shots difficult.
McGill’s 30 points came with lackluster efficiency (11-for-26) and 10 turnovers - not the double-double you see everyday.
Baker, meanwhile, paced the Hokies with 23 points and 10 boards. She looked confident hunting her shot right out of the gate, nailing a foot-on-the-line two on just their second offensive possession.
She is one of five different Hokies to lead the team in scoring through nine games this season.
Virginia Tech, which has recovered from its two-game skid with a two-game winning streak, returns to Cassell at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7 to face off against the reigning ACC champion Duke Blue Devils in its conference opener.
