On the heels of a disappointing overtime loss to Stanford, Virginia Tech bounced back with an 87-84 victory over Cal on senior day on Sunday.
In a tight contest where the biggest lead was seven points, the Hokies (17-10, 8-8 ACC) were clutch down the stretch against the Golden Bears (22-7, 10-6) — something they couldn’t say after Thursday’s defeat.
“I’m just so thrilled about our response,” Tech head coach Megan Duffy said after the win. “We were pretty upset and devastated after Thursday night’s Stanford game, and just proud of our leadership with Matilda [Ekh] and Rose [Micheaux] here, getting themselves ready to play. So much improvement from a couple nights ago, and I thought our execution down the stretch was tremendous.”
Tech was impressive in several ways. It made a 55.9 percent clip (33-of-59) and converted 17 of its 18 free throws, including a perfect 8-for-8 mark in the fourth quarter. In the second half, it was 18-of-26 (69.2%) from the floor. It also only gave the ball away five times, a new record for the fewest turnovers in a single game in program history.
Though the Hokies lost the rebounding battle 28-23 and only made four of their 11 3-pointers, they did enough to beat a Cal team that received 48 points in the AP Top 25 last week — technically good for a No. 26 ranking. The Golden Bears have big-time wins over current No. 18 Alabama, No. 13 NC State — who beat No. 1 Notre Dame in double overtime Sunday — and Florida State, who was fifth in receiving votes.
Though Tech’s triumph doesn’t fall into the Quadrant 1 category — Cal entered the day 40th in the NET rankings, and a Q1 win at home is against a team in the top 25 — it’s a quality one nonetheless, particularly for a squad sitting on the edge of the NCAA Tournament bubble. ESPN’s Charle Crème had the Hokies as the last team in the field after Thursday’s game.
They looked like a Big Dance-worthy team on Sunday, though. They were on from the start, never trailed by more than four points and were at their best in the fourth quarter. For starters, they took care of the ball — three of their five miscues came in the fourth when Cal was pressing — which allowed them to value possessions.
“There are many great stats from this game, but that was my favorite one that the staff pointed out,” Duffy said. “That was the really disappointing part Thursday night against Stanford. The points off turnovers when we have the lead, but to respond and handle the ball a little bit better, I thought the combination of Carleigh [Wenzel] and Mackie [Nelson] was a little bit better. I thought we just had a different mentality, even handling their pressure as the game went on.”
The Bears never went away, even when Tech pushed the lead to seven behind an 8-2 run in the third quarter centered around freshman Kayl Petersen and seniors Ekh and Micheaux. A layup from Cal’s Lulu Twidale knotted things at 69 with 5:55 remaining, at which point Duffy called timeout to reset her team.
It worked. Wenzel knocked down a jumper from the foul line out of the stoppage before Carys Baker blocked a shot and the Hokies forced a turnover on back-to-back possessions. Rather than try and hang on down the stretch like other times this year, they were in control and looked comfortable in the waning moments.
“The difference was execution,” Micheaux said. “We stuck to it. We just put our mind to what we needed to do to be able to execute stuff. But then also we just poured into each other.”
A layup from Micheaux, a midrange shot from Ekh and six points from Wenzel — a jump shot and four free throws — put Tech up 81-76 with 1:49 left. And despite the Bears scoring on back-to-back possessions to cut the margin to one with 49 seconds remaining, the Hokies still found a way to execute.
Unlike Thursday when they turned it over on an inbound in front of their own bench after barely getting the ball in play, they were methodical. Lani White inbounded to Wenzel and the ball eventually found Micheaux in the post, who made Cal pay.
Tech fended off two late pushes from the Bears by knocking down four free throws in the final 13 seconds — two each from White and Mackenzie Nelson — before Cal’s 3-point attempt to send the game to overtime on the final possession didn’t fall.
“We learned from last game that basketball is a game of runs,” Ekh said, “and when they went on our runs, we went away from how we had been playing all game and we went away from things that had been working. I think this game, we were more confident and kept doing the same things, like keep doing what’s working, even though they’re going to go on runs. … We were more confident in each other and were like, ‘This is not happening again, we’re winning this game.’”
It was a fitting response after the Hokies dropped three of their previous four games and five of their last seven. It was a balanced effort in which all seven players stepped up in big ways. Wenzel and Ekh were the headliners at 19 points apiece while Baker chipped in 14 and Micheaux had 11. White’s nine and Nelson’s eight were big, though, as were Petersen’s seven points and four boards.
Micheaux dealt with foul trouble for a large portion of the game — as did Baker and White — but Petersen filled in admirably, especially on the defensive end where she blocked two shots.
“I feel like the way she can compose herself,” said Micheaux of Petersen’s success. I feel like there were a lot of times at the beginning of the season like everyone was figuring out what their role was going to be and how they were going to help the team the most, and I feel like she composed herself very well. She’s getting a lot better on defense and communicating, and she’s finding her shots. … It just makes me happy to see her just in her own flow and her own rhythm.”
The result was a nice sendoff for Tech’s two seniors who transferred in before the 2023-24 campaign, won an ACC regular-season title and bought in when Duffy took over the program last April. They’re one of the key reasons why the Hokies have had success this year.
“I’m just so appreciative of the way they’ve approached all the change back in the spring and summer,” Duffy said of Ekh and Micheaux. “They have very different personalities, but they’ve led us the entire way. They continue to get better, they continue to be selfless for our program. It’s not about their numbers; it’s about playing hard, it’s about picking somebody else up, even when they have a bad day.
“We can coach them, and I haven’t known these guys for years; it’s just been a few months, but it feels like a lifetime. I know I’ll forever be their coach, and we want to keep this thing going, but I couldn’t ask for two better young women to help lead Virginia Tech and help lead our team.”
The Hokies close the year at Boston College on Thursday before traveling to Clemson on Sunday.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 87, Cal 84
(Lot of) thoughts from #Hokies 87-84 win over Cal: pic.twitter.com/VJZ2Yh1zz0
— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) February 23, 2025