DULUTH, Ga. — Sitting in a 17-3 hole with 1:28 left in the first quarter, Virginia Tech felt the pressure building.
It had struggled out of the gates in the second round of the ACC Tournament against Georgia Tech, converting just one of its first 16 shots and falling behind in a flash.
However, it stayed the course and buckled down defensively, which sparked an impressive turnaround in its 62-54 win on Thursday night in Gas South Arena.
“We weren’t too worried about it,” Hokies guard Carleigh Wenzel said. “It was more of a kind of just keep things going on the defensive end and let that flow into your offense. Obviously, it’s not like we didn’t see it. We were like, ‘OK, damn.’ But just not letting it dictate how we play defense and letting that get us going, and it did just that.”
Indeed. Head coach Megan Duffy called timeout, and her No. 6 seeded Hokies (23-8) responded well after the reset, ripping off a 26-6 run over the rest of the first half and taking a 29-23 lead into the locker room.
“Just really thrilled about our response after a really difficult start,” Duffy said. “Give Georgia Tech credit. They came out punching. I thought we maybe were a little bit nervous trying to get our feet under us for the beginning of the tournament. But after that, I thought we settled in, and defensively, we were a lot better. And then it was kind of a battle of will throughout the whole game.”
Wenzel ended the first quarter with back-to-back field goals, but they still trailed 17-7 and scored in single digits in the opening period for the first time this season. Yet, Samyha Suffren knocked down a jumper to start the second quarter, and their defense settled in as Mackenzie Nelson slid over, played help defense on Brianna Turnage, stripped her and took off for an easy transition layup.
In a flash, Virginia Tech had found a rhythm, and it took it and ran with it.
“We just almost had to reset ourselves,” Duffy said. “Everything we worked on didn’t really go according to plan. We said, ‘Let’s start with following the gameplan, let’s start with turning up our defense.’ We were just a step slow on everything, very similar to when we played them at home not too long ago.”
“Maybe it was nerves today,” Tech forward Kilah Freelon said. “It might have been new court and all, but I feel like it was definitely something different. It’s not like we weren’t communicating; it just wasn’t as strong, we weren’t as confident as we typically are.”
The offensive improvement was obvious because shots started falling — after a 3-for-18 first quarter, it was 9-for-17 in the second — but the defense set the tone. It held the No. 11 seed Yellow Jackets (14-18) at bay and only yielded one bucket over 10 minutes. They were just 2-for-11 from the field in the second quarter.
That allowed the Hokies to relax and led to more methodical offensive possessions, where they worked the ball around the perimeter, used the shot clock and got paint touches. They were more attack-minded, too.
“I think we came out not really communicating with each other,” Nelson said, “and I think that's a huge part of it. Coach Duffy and the coaching staff talk about it a lot in practice. It can’t come from the people on the sideline or the baseline or whatever it is; it has to come from the five on the court. And simply saying it, we weren’t doing that, and they were getting anything they wanted, and that’s why they went on that run in the beginning.
“We came out of that timeout and we changed it, and that’s why we went on a run, and we got stops, and that’s what allowed us to win this game today.”
That started to turn the tables for VT, which used two layups from Nelson to pull within one. Finally, a jumper from Leila Wells — who had the squad’s lone make through the first 8:32, which was a 3-pointer — put the Hokies on top at 20-19 with 4:09 left in the first half.
They quickly extended it, too, courtesy of a solo run from Carys Baker. She followed up a second-chance bucket and a jumper with a triple to make it a 24-2 run.
The Yellow Jackets eventually responded, but VT had already escaped the danger zone and created a new ballgame.
Much like the meeting 11 days ago in Blacksburg, it was ugly. There were fewer fouls — 26 compared to 39 — but it was a low-scoring, grind-it-out affair. Fortunately for the Hokies, they were able to recover against a Georgia Tech team that only had seven available players due to injuries and absences.
It was a versatile attack from Virginia Tech, however. Wenzel and Baker weren’t at their best offensively — Wenzel had 15 points while Baker had nine, plus seven rebounds — but they had help from other places.
Nelson was fantastic and did a little bit of everything, scoring 14 points while adding a career-high nine rebounds, six assists, two steals and no turnovers. Oh, and she drew three charges.
“I think I’m in this role that’s do whatever is needed,” Nelson said, “whether that’s come out and score, or whether that’s come out and throw a couple dimes, get some charges, play some defense. And like Carys, Carleigh, our main scorers maybe weren’t hitting in the beginning of the game, but we saw Leila step up, we saw Samyha come in, you saw me hit a couple shots, and I think that's our team right there.”
The Greenwich, Conn., native showed why she paces the ACC in assist-to-turnover ratio with a mark of 2.6, but also soared in for some boards, knocked down two 3-pointers and blocked a shot. The offensive fouls she drew were timely as well.
“Mackie was tremendous,” Duffy said. “We needed every ounce of what she gave to us. The charges, the assist-to-turnover ratio, they controlled our pace, even when we were struggling to score. She made phenomenal decisions. …
“I always say this about her, her passing ability, she can do it in a lot of different ways. It’s transition, it’s knowing our sets, it’s getting somebody with the hot hand. Her versatility to do it is really great, and it’s incredibly valuable for our team.”
Wells provided a similar kind of spark, too. In eight minutes, she posted eight points and a career-high six rebounds. She and Suffren — who added eight points, five rebounds and five assists — were tasked with slowing down Georgia Tech guard Talayah Walker (20 points), but as they’ve done all season, they chipped in where they were needed.
Wells and Nelson drained early treys in the third quarter, Freelon (eight points, seven rebounds, three steals) chipped in a few buckets and Suffren was clutch down the stretch. That, combined with their defensive uptick, offset some lulls that nearly swallowed them up earlier in the game.
“I feel like that’s always my mindset,” Wells said. “Any time I come into a came, I want to be the spark for our team, do whatever is necessary, whether it be defense, offense, and we kind of needed that spark, especially after that first quarter.”
The Hokies went five minutes without scoring between the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth quarter, but they had built up a 10-point lead, so the closest the Yellow Jackets got was two. Then Suffren and Wenzel showed off VT’s resiliency again with two baskets — a jumper and a three — to shut the door on GT for good.
The win sets the table for Friday, where the Hokies will face No. 3 seed North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. ET (ACC Network). It’s a rematch they’re looking forward to, particularly given how they feel like they let the meeting on Feb. 19 in Cassell Coliseum slip away.
Virginia Tech led for 30 of that game’s 45 minutes and was up four with five minutes to play, but its execution in the final moments was lacking, and it lost 66-63 in overtime. That led to an ugly, but productive, film session the next day, which is imprinted in the players’ brains.
“We learned a lot from last game, so we’re excited to show them what we learned,” Suffren said. “Just learning about the possessions where we could have taken advantage. So, more transition, other looks, cuts that we missed, we watched a lot of film on it, and it was very ugly to see. It was uglier on film. It was hard, but we learned a whole lot, and we’re just excited for tomorrow.”
It’s also made the Hokies hungrier for the opportunity to get another crack at the No. 16 Tar Heels (25-6). When the bracket dropped, their eyes lit up when they saw a potential rematch with UNC. Now they’ve got it.
“I think we let one slip away in Blacksburg,” Wenzel said. “I’m sure they think that they got one on us, but just understanding what mistakes we made. We had a long film session the day after that, so we know what to expect going in, and if there’s anybody of those top-four teams we would want back, it would be them more than anything.”
Box Score: Virginia Tech 62, Georgia Tech 54