Virginia Tech blew an 18-point third-quarter lead and fell to Miami 75-67 in overtime on New Year’s Day.
“Just extremely disappointed with our second half,” Tech head coach Megan Duffy said. “Defensively, we weren’t very good. For how well it went in the first half, we didn’t put another 20 minutes together, specifically that fourth quarter. So again, this one hurts, especially on our home floor, to lose one like this.”
The Hokies (11-4, 1-2 ACC) led for 36 of regulation’s 40 minutes and had a 51-39 cushion through three quarters, but the Hurricanes (10-4, 2-1) stormed back late. Tech was outscored 36-16 between the fourth quarter and overtime, headlined by an 18-3 Miami run over 6:28 in the fourth.
It had shades of last year’s result in Coral Gables, a Jan. 5 clash that saw Tech climb out of a 12-point hole and win on the road behind Carys Baker’s 23 points. The script was flipped this time around, and Miami kept Baker quiet — she had just eight points, six rebounds and three turnovers on 3-for-12 shooting — while slowly turning the tide of the game.
“They probably got tired of hearing her name because all week I talked about how she almost single-handedly beat us last year,” Miami head coach Tricia Cullop said of Baker. “She hit three after three. … So we talked to the team about what a great player she is and that we couldn’t leave her open. We had to contest her shots, we had to switch at times to get out on her. She had more looks than I wanted her to have, but I thought our team was really in tune to what we had to do to win.”
It was eerily similar to the Hokies’ overtime loss to Stanford last February, too, where they looked like an NCAA Tournament team for 30 minutes and had an 11-point cushion that gradually slipped away.
Simply put, after controlling the majority of the contest, Tech had no answer when Miami heated up, imposed its will on the interior and buckled down defensively.
“I thought we had a bunch of defensive breakdowns with some coverage on a couple of their sets,” Duffy said. “Then they attacked us one-on-one. And then to give them credit, they executed a couple of things really nicely, so it’s kind of a combination of everything. When you give up 20 in the third quarter, 23 in the fourth quarter, there’s a lot of things that don’t go well.
“I thought us missing a few easy shots really impacted our mindset on defense, and we’ve been talking a lot with this group about there’s a lot of different ways to make winning plays, and if your shot’s not falling or you don’t get a clean look, what do you do to respond on the other side of the floor? … We just have to get better at that.”
The Hokies shot 22-for-46 (47.8%) in the first 30 minutes but were just 6-for-20 (30%) in the fourth quarter and overtime. Conversely, the Canes struggled early — they were 8-for-32 (25%) in the first half — but heated up after that to the tune of 23-for-40 (57.5%).
“Our defense stepped up in the second half, especially late,” said Cullop, who won her 500th career game on Thursday. “We knew we had to if we wanted to have a chance, we had to get stops. We couldn’t trade baskets, and we executed so much better.”
Miami was paced by its dynamic duo of 5-foot-9 guard Gal Raviv and 6-foot-6 center Ra Shaya Kyle. They were a combined 3-for-14 for eight points in the first half. After intermission, they took over, shooting 13-for-23 and accounting for 33 points.
“We talked about it all week with our preparation — her ability to change pace is really, really good,” Tech guard Mackenzie Nelson said of Raviv. “That’s what makes it hard to guard her. We tried to switch up ball-screen defenses, and I think we — specifically, me — got caught a lot of times going under the ball screen, and I think that just gave her confidence.”
Kyle finished with a 23-point, 13-rebound double-double — and played the final nine minutes with four fouls — while making countless key plays down the stretch. Raviv also sprinkled in back-to-back jumpers near the end of regulation and key free throws in overtime.
“I was really proud of [Kyle’s] composure down the stretch,” Cullop said. “Those two, Gal Raviv and Ra Shaya Kyle, really feed off each other really well. I think the more we play into the season, the chemistry of those two is going to be really special, because it was tonight in the second half.”
On the other side, Tech was led by Carleigh Wenzel, who bounced back from some December struggles with 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting, including a 4-for-8 mark from deep.
She was quiet last month, averaging 8.6 points per game while shooting 20 percent overall and 23 percent from long range. Against the Hurricanes, she found her rhythm early, starting 4-for-5 for 11 points in the first half.
“I’ve been in the gym, I think it’s made a difference,” Wenzel said. “I think the break was good for me, but at the end of the day, if we don’t win, it doesn’t really mean anything.”
However, Wenzel faced foul trouble in the second half and missed a few long stretches of the game. The Hokies carried on without her in the third quarter with some balanced contributions, and she scored their first five points in the fourth upon returning, but when she picked up her fourth foul with 7:43 remaining in regulation, things took a turn.
Tech couldn’t generate offense against Miami’s stingy 1-3-1 zone. It missed four of its five shots and turned the ball over six times over the aforementioned 6:28 stretch where the Canes ripped off an 18-3 run. No one stepped up offensively with Wenzel off the floor, and the visitors had all of the momentum when she checked back in.
Raviv’s consecutive makes gave Miami a 62-60 lead with 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter, and the Hokies answered through Kilah Freelon to send it to overtime, but the Hurricanes overpowered them from there.
“I think just like any other good team, they switched up their defense,” said Nelson, who had nine points, eight assists and six rebounds. “They went to the 1-3-1, man, a little bit of both at some points, and we worked on it in practice, we took those shots in practice with confidence. I can’t say today we took the same shots with the same amount of confidence, and I think that’s what it came down to at the end of the day.”
Tech also struggled to get to the foul line. It entered the day averaging 20.7 free-throw attempts per game, the most in the ACC, but took a season-low five foul shots against Miami, who defended well without fouling. The Hokies also had Wenzel, their leader in attempts, saddled on the bench for portions of the second half.
More than anything, though, the Hurricanes got downhill, attacked inside, played through contact and drew fouls while the Hokies didn’t. The free-throw disparity — 11-for-19 for Miami, 2-for-5 for Virginia Tech — backed it up, as did the 46-24 margin of points in the paint.
The Canes are a solid team in Year 2 under Cullop and entered Thursday at No. 44 in the NET rankings, eight spots ahead of Tech at No. 52. On paper, it’s not a shocking result for the Hokies against another middle-of-the-pack ACC team, but given how well they started the game and the double-digit margin they built up, the loss will sting for some time — maybe even into March. After all, similar performances last season, like defeats to Syracuse, Stanford and Boston College, kept them out of the NCAA Tournament.
“There’s a lot of basketball to play,” Duffy said, “and I think we’ve been talking a lot about sticking to our values, not getting too high or too low. We all should be extremely disappointed, but again, this is a group that we’ve been growing to fight back, and I look forward to getting back to work and figuring out those small details that could have prevented what happened today.
“I’ve got all of the confidence in the world in that locker room … that we’re all going to stay driven to fix some of the things and use it as a learning experience and keep moving forward.”
Box Score: Miami 75, Virginia Tech 67 (OT)