LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Virginia Tech did its best to hang around but was outmatched in its 85-60 loss at No. 13 Louisville on Sunday.
“I thought [the Cardinals] were the tougher team today,” Tech head coach Megan Duffy said. “They really feed off their crowd, and Coach [Jeff Walz] does a great job of putting some different lineups in. Sometimes they get stronger when they sub. Overall, I thought their effort exceeded ours today.”
The Hokies (11-5, 1-3 ACC) kept it close through the first seven minutes, but a Laura Ziegler 3-pointer opened things up for the Cardinals (14-3, 4-0), who led 19-12 at the end of the period.
After the margin expanded to 12, Tech cut it to eight behind layups from Samyha Suffren and Carys Baker. Louisville was overwhelming, however, and after a three-point play from Mackenly Randolph provided a 37-22 lead, it closed the half with three straight makes — including a late three from Ziegler — to take a 44-27 cushion into the locker room.
“I think we responded really well with how when they scored or we didn’t score, just coming back and keeping the same tempo,” Randolph said. “… It all starts on defense.”
The Cardinals set the tone to start the second half, too. After a lengthy possession with four offensive rebounds, Anaya Hardy got a layup to fall, and the Hokies gave it away on the other end when Hardy poked the ball free from Baker, leading to a transition layup for Randolph — and a timeout from Duffy.
The teams traded possessions the rest of the way, with Louisville extending the difference to 31 before a Tech 7-0 run whittled it back down to 22. The Hokies outscored the Cardinals 18-15 in the fourth quarter, too, but every time they made a run, the home team punched back, and they couldn’t overcome the early deficit.
“I think the physicality inside was challenging,” Duffy said. “Even when we switched up to the zone, just felt like we couldn’t grab a rebound. It can wear you out, too, at different points, the extra possessions. Even when I felt like we started playing some better basketball, it was maybe plus-two or was even, and just couldn’t get over the hump. But the quarters of giving up over 20, it just can’t happen.”
Samyha Suffren provided a spark off the bench for Tech with three steals, which got her going offensively. She finished with 14 points, seven rebounds, five assists and no turnovers.
“I thought Samyha was really good today,” Duffy said. “I thought her energy to defend, be scrappy, she was trying to get to her strengths on the offensive side. I think the thing with our team is just the consistency to do that across the board, whether that’s her, other guards on our team. If she can build off of that, it’s a good thing for us.”
Baker was the Hokies’ leading scorer with 16 points and made eight of her nine 2-point field goals. Like the rest of the team, though, she struggled from the outside, missing all five of her looks.
While Louisville was 11-for-19 from long range, Virginia Tech was 0-for-16. That included a 0-for-5 mark from Baker and a 0-for-4 clip from Carleigh Wenzel, who made just one of her 10 shots and finished with five points.
It snapped the Hokies’ 329-game streak with at least one made 3-pointer and is their first time since Dec. 21, 2015, vs. Radford without a make.
“Sometimes you’re going to take a couple of bad threes off late shot clock or contested shots,” Duffy said, “but I thought a lot of them, when we moved it, we had pretty good looks and weren’t able to hit them.”
Kilah Freelon and Mackenzie Nelson each added eight points, and Freelon also corralled seven rebounds and posted three steals.
After shooting 29 percent in the first quarter (5-for-17), the Hokies were 19-for-42 (45%) over the next 30 minutes. That wasn’t close to enough against a top-15 squad, though, especially with how efficient Louisville was offensively.
On top of the 11 triples, the Cardinals shot 47 percent for the game (34-for-72), highlighted by a 61 percent clip (11-for-18) in the second quarter. Moreover, they assisted 23 of their 34 made baskets.
Tech keyed in on Louisville’s leading scorer, Tajianna Roberts, and limited her to 3-for-12 shooting and nine points, but her teammates stepped up.
Ziegler was the player of the game, posting 18 points and nine rebounds while tacking on four assists. Walz moved her around the floor, and she found success from both behind the arc, where she was 2-for-4, and under the basket.
“Just has an ability to make really smart plays that the common eye can’t see,” Duffy said of Ziegler. “She’s just in the right spot and can take advantage of a mismatch, and she’s got really good players around her, which is always going to help her game.”
She was joined in double figures by Randolph, who tallied 11 points, and Imari Berry, who chipped in 13 points off the bench. Berry provided a spark in the first half with back-to-back 3-pointers on her first two possessions.
It was a well-rounded effort from the Cardinals in other spots, with six other players scoring at least five points, including nine from forward Elif Istanbulluoglu. Freshman Anaya Hardy contributed eight points while also reeling in eight rebounds — all on the offensive glass.
“We’ve got seven or eight that you have to guard,” said Louisville head coach Jeff Walz, who earned his 500th career win on Sunday. “You can’t just leave somebody open, like tonight, Virginia Tech did a great job of trying to make as difficult on Taj as possible. But then Hardy goes 4-for-5, Mack goes 5-for-9, Laura’s 6-for-12, Imari’s 5-for-8, Elif’s 4-for-8, Reyna [Scott] is 3-for-6. … It’s unselfishness.”
It’s a difficult result for the Hokies against arguably the best team in the conference, especially coming off Thursday’s overtime loss to Miami, where they blew a late lead. They’re back on the road at Syracuse this week with an opportunity to steady things before Boston College comes to town.
“After the Miami game, we were pretty devastated with that fourth quarter and how overtime went,” Duffy said. “So we’re trying to dig deeper into finding a little bit more consistent play and the effort it takes when you’re on the road or protecting your home court, and I do think today, despite the score, there were some positive moments of us executing a little bit better and responding out of a couple of timeouts.
“I think the key with us is getting more players on board to do it consistently, and we’re going to keep fighting and swinging and punching to figure that out.”
Box Score: No. 13 Louisville 85, Virginia Tech 60