Mackenzie Nelson dished out seven assists as Virginia Tech sped past Niagara. (Jon Fleming)

Virginia Tech sped past Niagara 83-46 on Thursday night in Cassell Coliseum for its fifth straight win to open the season.

“I thought we had good balance,” Tech head coach Megan Duffy said. “I really enjoyed getting our entire roster in the game, and I thought Amani Jenkins was a great bright spot for us. Got some rebounds, a couple of nice buckets. Overall, just a good team effort. I thought our team played unselfish and shared the ball, which is always a positive thing.”

The Hokies (5-0) shot the ball well out of the gates, breaking through the Purple Eagles’ (0-4) constant full-court press, and the visitors couldn’t keep pace.

Tech was 61.8 percent from the floor (21-for-34) in the first half, including a 12-for-16 mark in the second quarter, and led 51-20 at intermission. It only turned the ball over six times during that stretch, too, all while limiting Niagara to a 34.6 percent clip (9-for-26). Hokies guard Mel Daley said they were just “in a flow.”

“Honestly, I feel like it was just great shot selection and just being able to find each other,” Tech forward Kilah Freelon said. “It wasn’t really like rushed shots, it wasn’t just random shots. There were a lot of confident and well-executed shots.”

The Purple Eagles scored the first six points of the third quarter as the Hokies were slow out of the gate and turned it over twice.

Duffy called timeout to reset her team, and Tech responded well from there. It ripped off a 10-0 run over the next four minutes, extending the lead to 35, 61-26.

“It was basically, ‘Lock in,’” Daley said of her coach’s message. “That was the gist of it. Third quarters for us, it seems to be we start a little slow. I think we need to do better of coming out of the half and kind of starting [like] that first quarter, right from the punch, so I think basically it was like, ‘Get it together.’”

The cushion provided Duffy and her coaching staff an opportunity to test different lineup combinations and give the younger players some run in the fourth quarter.

Eleven of Tech’s 12 players scored and five finished in double figures. Samyha Suffren and Daley led the way with 13 points each — the former was 5-for-8 shooting while the latter was 6-for-11. Suffren also corralled five rebounds while Daley had two steals.

Freelon had an active evening with 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting to go with six rebounds and three steals. Carys Baker had 10 points and four boards while Carleigh Wenzel chipped in nine points and three assists.

Mackenzie Nelson was also impressive with another do-it-all game: 10 points, seven assists, three rebounds and three steals. Through five contests, she’s averaging 7.3 assists per game — the ninth-best mark in the country and the second-best in the ACC.

Hokies freshman Amani Jenkins had three blocks vs. Niagara and is fitting in well. (Jon Fleming)

The Hokies also received a nice boost from true freshman forward Amani Jenkins. The former top-100 recruit from Johnston, Iowa, posted five points, five rebounds and three blocks in 16 minutes. She’s acclimated well since arriving over the summer.

“Amani has done a great job of settling in to figuring out the work ethic it takes and having a positive attitude and just being ready every day,” Duffy said. “I think that’s what we keep telling her. ‘At any point, your number can be called.’ She’s putting in that extra work with [strength and conditioning] Coach [Lee] Taylor and our coaching staff, and it’s nice to see a game like today where she was in the right spot, she blocked some shots, she had a big, physical presence inside for us. She deserved those minutes and she was able to contribute with them.”

Tech’s faced numerous styles through its first five games of the season and seen a lot of physicality and pressure, including from Niagara. As a result, players have been in a variety of situations — experiences that could prove beneficial over the next two weeks.

Things ramp up quickly for the Hokies, who have a crucial five-game stretch over the next 17 days, beginning with Sunday’s trip up Interstate 81 to Harrisonburg to face James Madison (3-3) in their first road game of the year.

It’s the first part of a home-and-home series set up this offseason by Duffy and Dukes head coach Sean O’Regan, who is 213-84 (.717) in 10 seasons. JMU will visit Blacksburg next year.

“I think it’s great for both programs,” Duffy said. “I’ve known Sean for a long time now, [from] when we were assistant coaches just trying to make it and figure it out, and now we’re in our own programs. He’s a great coach, great basketball mind, consistently has done a terrific job there.

“We had a couple openings on our schedule and we were just trying to figure out around football who could host and who could be on the road, and it just worked out that we were going to start the series at their place. Just excited for it because they always have a good NET [rating], they always have a really good team, so if you can get a good, quality win, it helps you on your résumé.”

Tech is away from the friendly confines of Cassell Coliseum for the following two contests, too — at Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands vs. BYU and then Oregon State or Vanderbilt. That will take place next Thursday (Nov. 27) and Saturday (Nov. 29), respectively.

Things don’t slow down when the Hokies return to the continental U.S., either. They host Florida in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Dec. 4 before opening league play on Dec. 7 vs. Duke, the reigning ACC Tournament champions.

“Now the fun starts,” Duffy said. “… You really have to bring your own energy on the road often times, and just talking about how we communicate to reach other, how intense we are, but at the same time, you’re focusing on the same process. You’ve got to know the scout, you’ve got to execute what we’re trying to do in the game plan, and we’re going to be led by our upperclassmen. ... [We’ll] see what we’re made of on the road.”

Box Score: Virginia Tech 83, Niagara 46