Virginia Tech had a cold shooting night on Thursday in Cassell Coliseum but overcame it to beat Pitt 67-50 for its sixth straight win.
“I'm happy with our grit and toughness today,” Hokies head coach Megan Duffy said. “It was not the prettiest basketball game, and give Pitt some credit for that, their kids played very hard, made some big plays. But I was just really proud of the way we stepped up in the fourth quarter defensively, whether it was our rebounding, taking a charge, and then offensively, finally got back to maybe ourselves a little bit. Just sharing and moving the ball, and got some really nice possessions.”
Though they were just 36 percent (25-for-69) from the field and 19 percent (3-for-16) from behind the arc, the Hokies (17-5, 7-3 ACC) doubled up on the Panthers (8-15, 1-9) in the fourth quarter, outscoring them 20-10 and pulling away in what was previously a four-point game late in the third.
It looked like Tech might create some separation for good in the second quarter when a 9-0 run — sparked by two Mel Daley baskets, a Kilah Freelon layup and a Carys Baker 3-pointer — put them up 27-13 at the 6:50 mark. However, Pitt clawed its way back with an 8-0 stretch and pulled within 33-25 at intermission.
The Hokies extended the margin to 10 at the third quarter media timeout, but the Panthers ended the period on a high note when Mikayla Johnson, the game’s leading scorer with 21 points on 8-for-14 shooting, recorded a three-point play to make it 44-40.
However, Tech dug deep in the final 10 minutes and did not allow Pitt to score over the final 4:05, ending the contest on a 12-0 run.
Continuity helped. Duffy did not make a substitution until the Panthers’ timeout with 45 seconds remaining in regulation, inserting Leila Wells and giving Carleigh Wenzel a rest. She rolled with Mackenzie Nelson, Wenzel, Samyha Suffren, Baker and Freelon for the other 9:15 of the quarter, and it worked.
“I think earlier we were going to our bench and trying to give these [starters] a few extra minutes earlier in the game,” Duffy said. “With a little bit of the up-and-down play, at some point you’ve got to go with the five who are really clicking, and I thought that group that was out there on the floor really tightened up defensively. And then finally we started doing what we do — sharing and moving the ball and getting some easier shots and some higher-percentage shots.
“I thought we missed a few easy ones tonight, but that’s going to happen, and that’s why we kept talking about just tighten up a little bit defensively and make sure our rebounding is strong.”
Tech ramped up its defensive intensity down the stretch, and it showed in the statistics, where seven of Pitt’s 19 turnovers came in the final period. Carly Viegas drilled two of her eight treys in the quarter, but they were only two of the three field goals Tech allowed in the fourth.
The Hokies also got Johnson to foul out with 3:23 left when Nelson drove hard at the rim and drew the contact. It was a five-point game before the sequence, but the Panthers lost their lone double-figure scorer — she accounted for 21 of their 50 points (42%) — and couldn’t hang around after that.
“I just thought we tightened up a little bit,” Duffy said. “It helped that Mikayla Johnson fouled out late in the fourth quarter, which took the ball out of her hands a little bit, but I think our post defense was really good inside on [Fatima Diakhate], I thought we got out on Viegas when she got hot a few minutes earlier in the game, and just tightened up on a couple things. Guards got their hands on a couple little steals and prevented some easier possessions for them.”
Wenzel led Tech with 17 points on 6-for-18 shooting and also added three assists, two rebounds, two blocks and a steal. Baker was 3-for-13 from the floor but finished with 13 points, nine boards, two blocks, an assist and a steal.
It was an off night for the majority of the team. The Hokies got a lot of solid, open looks that lipped out, ones they’ve made throughout the previous 21 games.
Nelson (seven points, five assists) was 2-for-9 while Suffren (eight points, two steals) was 3-for-9. The only two players to shoot better than 50 percent on multiple attempts were Freelon, who was dominant with a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double and shot 5-for-8, and Daley, who accounted for six points and was 3-for-5.
“We had good looks,” Baker said, “and everyone just told me to keep shooting, but it was just one of those nights, I guess. … I think if shots aren’t falling, I have to figure out ways to affect the game in other ways, and I think I cleaned up my rebounding, and then also just helping everyone on the defensive end as well.”
Still, Virginia Tech figured out a way to win against a struggling Pitt team. It capitalized in the paint (36-24), off turnovers (21-7) and on second-chance opportunities (20-7). It was also 14-for-17 from the stripe.
In the final period, the Hokies outrebounded the Panthers 10-3, which included seven offensive boards that they turned into 10 second-chance points. It’s also why they finished with a plus-six margin on the glass, 42-36.
Tech’s ACC slate ramps up with eight games remaining. Virginia, fresh off a triple-overtime victory at Wake Forest, ventures to Blacksburg on Sunday for Part I of the Commonwealth Clash. Then it’s five straight Quadrant 1 or 2 games — at Notre Dame, vs. NC State, on the West Coast at Stanford and Cal, and then back at home vs. North Carolina.
After their senior night against a bottom-tier Georgia Tech squad on Feb. 22 and their second open date on Feb. 26, they end the year on the road at UVa on March 1.
Duffy said her group is “pretty connected right now.” What’s been key throughout their six-game run, and can they carry that over into their final stretch of the season?
“I’d say a lot of it is our energy coming into practice, our energy with the skill workouts we’re doing,” Freelon said. “Just the way we carry ourselves with each other and how much more positive we are. Like we’ve always been a positive team, but there’s a difference in a team that’s positive and a positive team that’s pushing each other to be more positive and work harder each day.
“I feel like all of us have been pushing ourselves more and more with the extra shots, the extra defensive stuff, the extra clips, and I feel like that’s what’s making us be more successful right now.”
Box Score: Virginia Tech 67, Pitt 50