Carleigh Wenzel and Virginia Tech improved to 4-0 after beating press-heavy Coastal Carolina. (Jon Fleming)

Virginia Tech fended off Coastal Carolina 82-59 in Saturday’s matinee in Cassell Coliseum for its fourth win of the season.

“It felt like we played two basketball games,” Hokies head coach Megan Duffy said. “What a frantic pace. We were very concerned about this game today, just because of the way Coastal Carolina plays. Very well-coached, they’ve got some talent, they can bomb threes and they can get downhill, so I was very proud of the resilience of our team.”

The Hokies (4-0) jumped out to an early 30-13 lead in the first 10 minutes and held serve the rest of the way, though the Chanticleers (2-3) made things interesting in the third quarter.

Tech shot 2-for-18 in that period (11%) and scored just four points to CCU’s 12 — an anomaly of sorts considering the rest of the game — and a 13-0 run from the visitors drew them within 11 points. However, the Hokies pushed them away and closed the game strong on a 14-2 run.

“Obviously, the third quarter wasn’t exactly what we had intended,” Duffy said, “but I thought our response in the fourth quarter to handle their run and their momentum, to make a final push to blow it open a little bit, was really good for our team. Proud of them for that.”

The Hokies were 27-for-66 (40.9%) for the game, but remove the third quarter and they finished 25-for-48 (52.1%). Duffy said they got down on themselves in that span and had some self-inflicted mistakes while the Chanticleers made their run. They responded the right way in the fourth, though.

“Just staying confident,” Tech guard Carleigh Wenzel said. “Basketball is a game of runs, so understanding that that’s going to happen, we’re going to have dips, but seeing however we can bounce back, and I think we did a good job of that today. So again, going back, figuring out why we were so low in that third quarter, but that’s not obviously something you want to out and try to do, but everybody was aware. We knew the shots we were taking and it wasn’t anything different. It’s stuff we work on every day.”

“I thought we just had a couple lapses with our press offense,” Duffy said. “They got a couple little steals off some poor decisions by us. We were taking care of the ball pretty well early, just had a couple letdowns, and then I thought we had some really good shots that we made in the first half and they didn’t go in.”

It was the fourth different style Tech faced in as many games to open the 2025-26 season. Towson played at an up-tempo pace while Loyola (Md.) slowed it down and Gardner-Webb frequented a 2-3 zone while mixing in some pressure looks.

Meanwhile, Coastal Carolina pressed for nearly 40 minutes. The Hokies handled it well for stretches but had the occasional lapse. They finished with 17 turnovers, 11 of which came in the middle two quarters, but also had 21 assists on 27 made field goals.

“I think it’s really great to be able to focus into these scouts and try and take away certain things,” Duffy said, “and there’s plenty of time in these first four games we haven’t taken away some things we needed to, so just the growth of their IQs. It’s so critical when you get into ACC play down the road because that margin of error and a few mistakes can win or lose you the game.”

Tech also had an intentionally quick turnaround for this contest. In preparation for what it’ll see at Paradise Jam over Thanksgiving, its multi-team event in the U.S. Virgin Islands, it had a two-day turnaround after Thursday’s win over Gardner-Webb, which altered some schedules.

Mackenzie Nelson and the Hokies have faced some interesting styles of play to start the year. (Jon Fleming)

Preparation started late Thursday night with constructing the game plan, and the coaching staff squeezed in some different film sessions that normally occur over a few days into Friday, which accompanied that morning’s practice and Saturday’s shootaround. Duffy said there was a little bit of fatigue, part of the reason why she rolled with a shorter bench, but it worked.

“I thought our focus was really good,” Duffy said. “The first quarter, the way we came out, I felt like we executed what we wanted to. It doesn’t always happen like that, but I thought overall, the carryover into the prep of Coach [Itoro Coleman’s] scout and teaching me very quickly what we needed to do, and the communication to our team was very solid for an early game.”

Carleigh Wenzel led the Hokies with her third career double-double of 23 points and 10 assists, which tied her career-high. A chunk of her points came from the foul line, where she made 8-of-9 free throws.

Her backcourt partner, Mackenzie Nelson, also added 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting with four assists. Through two weeks, that duo is averaging a combined 12 assists per game.

“It’s awesome,” Nelson said of her partnership with Wenzel. “Especially in a game where they press probably 80 percent of the game, just having two people to handle the basketball and knowing she can take it up, I can take it up. Just keeping the other team [from] not knowing what we’re going to do is a blessing.”

Wenzel and Nelson were joined in double figures by Kilah Freelon, who had 18 points and eight rebounds, and Carys Baker, who drained three 3-pointers en route to 15 points and six boards.

Mel Daley added nine points and five rebounds, too, while Samyha Suffren had another do-it-all performance with three points, three rebounds, three steals and two assists.

On the other side, the Chanticleers were paced by Roanoke native Tracey Hueston off the bench with 21 points. The Northside High School product was 8-for-12 from the floor and 4-for-6 from the stripe to accompany five rebounds.

The Hokies close their season-opening five-game home stand on Thursday vs. Niagara before a quick jaunt up Interstate 81 next Sunday to face James Madison. Those are their final two tune-up contests before their Caribbean trip over Feast Week.

Box Score: Virginia Tech 82, Coastal Carolina 59