Virginia Tech cruised past UNC Wilmington in a 99-57 victory to kick off the Megan Duffy era Monday night.
“Extremely proud of our team, just for showing up ready to go,” Duffy said after her first win as the head coach of the Hokies. “There was a great energy in our building, I thought our first group really set the tone with our defense and then getting out in transition, and then obviously a ton of positive momentum throughout the night.”
Tech (1-0) jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first 62 seconds, forcing Seahawks (0-1) head coach Nicole Woods to call timeout, and it laid down the hammer from there.
Matilda Ekh drained a 3-pointer just eight seconds into the game, followed by Carleigh Wenzel blocking a shot and taking it coast-to-coast for a layup. Rose Micheaux grabbed an offensive board and easily put it back up and in on the next possession and Tech was off and running.
“You want to get off to a great start in the first game and couldn’t have scripted it any better,” Duffy said. “For them to call an early timeout, it was great energy from the bench and I think the big thing is just trying to keep that momentum going in that first quarter, but I was very proud of their start. You never know in the first game what it’s going to be like.”
Tech scored the game’s first 15 points, which came from four different players — Ekh, Wenzel, Micheaux and Lani White — and had a 55-23 lead at intermission.
The Hokies shot the lights out early. They made 16 of their 24 first-quarter attempts (67%) and posted 34 points, led by Ekh and true freshman forward Kayl Petersen. That and their defense — they limited the Seahawks to 4-of-15 (26.7%) in the first 10 minutes — helped put UNCW away quickly.
“We talked about how we really want to come and have the first punch and that it’s really going to help us in the long run of the game,” Micheaux said. “We knew what we needed, so it was really good.”
Five Hokies scored in double figures, led by Ekh’s 18 points. She was 7-of-12 from the floor and had a career-high nine rebounds to accompany four assists and a steal.
Wenzel chipped in a career-best 14 points on 5-of-9 shooting while grabbing five boards, dishing out five assists and blocking two shots. Micheaux also added 14 (7-of-9 FG) and five rebounds. Meanwhile, Baker provided a spark early, finishing with 14 points (6-of-9 FG) — 12 of which came in the first half. She added four boards, too.
Petersen had an impressive 12 points in her collegiate debut, a performance that featured two 3-pointers, three rebounds, two assists and 5-of-7 shooting. Samyha Suffren (eight points, four assists, three steals), Mackenzie Nelson (six points, six rebounds, four assists, four steals) and White (six points, four rebounds, two assists) all had big contributions as well.
Tech was pretty solid defensively, forcing 20 turnovers and limiting the Seahawks to just 37.5% from the floor (21-of-56). Taylor Henderson and Jania Hall led UNC Wilmington with 13 and 11 points, respectively.
The Hokies had a bit of a slow start to the second half, missing three of their first four shots while turning the ball over once. After back-to-back baskets from the Seahawks, Duffy called timeout, and Tech responded well, knocking down 10 of its next 12 attempts through the end of the period.
Duffy’s squad was also better on the glass than in its exhibition win over Division-II Limestone 13 days ago. Rebounding was a huge focus in the practices that followed, and the Hokies were plus-20 in that category in their opener (41-21), led by Ekh’s nine.
“We struggled a little bit in the exhibition, so I would say since then it’s been maybe our main focus in practice, to box out and rebound,” Ekh said. “That’s something we’ve been working on a lot these past two weeks since the exhibition so it’s good to see that we beat them by 20 [on the boards].”
Tech’s next game is a big step up: Sunday vs. Iowa in the Ally Tipoff in the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. The Hawkeyes are also in a new era with the departure of Caitlin Clark and longtime head coach Lisa Bluder, but they return a number of contributors from last year’s team that beat the Hokies 80-76 last year in the same event.
“We’re excited for Sunday,” Ekh said. “… You never really know coming into the first game what your team is going to look like so I think this was very good for us to build some confidence and just play together. Everyone got good minutes and was involved in the play. Now we’re going to shift focus and start talking about Iowa.”
Box Score: Virginia Tech 99, UNC Wilmington 57
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