Virginia Tech Women Blasts Presbyterian - A Deep Dive

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The Virginia Tech women rolled Presbyterian 92-36 on Wednesday in Blacksburg. They came out focused and jumped all over the Blue Hose from the start.

Tech head coach Megan Duffy said. “Really liked our focus tonight.I thought we were ready to play. Liked our bounce back from the Duke loss. It was great to see everybody get in the scoring column and put some great minutes on the board for us, and overall, just great team effort.”

Presbyterian (2-9) came into Cassell with a NET rating of 363, dead last in the NCAA. The Blue Hose had lost to common Tech opponent Coastal Carolina by 49 and to Wake Forest by 37. In fact, Presbyterian had only won two games, against Division II and III teams. There were going to be no cliches - no “hangover from the Duke loss”, no “overlooking Presbyterian.”

GAME SUMMARY

The Hokies jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead within the first two minutes. Carleigh Wenzel nailed a three-pointer, Kilah Freelon grabbed an offensive rebound and putback, Mel Daley drove the wing for a layup, and then Wenzel finished the run with the free throw. Then a lid was seemingly placed on the Tech basket for nearly four minutes. While Tech likes to get out in transition, it was playing too fast, settling for quick drives and jump shots The Hokies committed several turnovers and missed layups and jumpshots, resulting in a four-minute dry spell. As announcer Elizabeth Kitley, in her debut announcing effort, said, “I would like to see them run something in the half-court and take advantage of that size.”

Meanwhile, Presbyterian could do little. Tech’s defense was smothering. It snuffed out drives, challenged players on the perimeter, helped and switched effectively, and blocked any attempt that got past the first wave of defense. Presbyterian didn’t score for the four minutes of the contest and even that first basket was a struggle.

The Hokies settled into their offense and began attacking the lane methodically to finish the 1st quarter leading 22-8.  Their shooting improved as well. After going 7-for-21 (33.3%) in the first, Tech heated up to the tune of 63.9 percent shooting over the 2nd and 3rd quarters and 52 percent (38-for-73) for the game. Meanwhile, Presbyterian struggled to score, going 12-for-49 (24.5 percent) for the game. It didn’t score over the final 6:44 minutes of the second quarter and experienced a similar 6-minute drought in the third quarter. Tech led 46-14 at half-time, 75-22 after three, and then it was just a matter of the final score.

Starting point guard Mackenzie Nelson didn’t play for the first time all season. She dressed out and was on the bench but was not feeling well per Coach Duffy, who said it was “nothing serious.”

The starting foursome of Carleigh Wenzel, Carys Baker, Mel Daley, and Kilah Freelon established the tone and jumpstarted the team. Wenzel finished with 7 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block in limited action. Baker added 5 points; 8 rebounds, including 4 offensive; 1 assist; and 1 steal. Daley chipped in 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 blocks.

Freelon was particularly effective in her 16 minutes of playing time, scoring 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbing 7 rebounds, including 3 offensive boards. Duffy talked about how “Kilah was a little upset after the last couple of games, I think she took it out on Presbyterian. Very efficient with what she was doing. Got some great rebounds. Always the hustle kid that we have. Was able to finish around the rim. So overall, a great night for her as well.”

ROLL CALL: 

None of those four starters played more than 20 minutes as they gave way to the bench. In fact, the other seven players on the roster all saw action, with the bench scoring 48 points and five of those players having career highs. 

Leila Wells:  Wells started in place of Nelson and had a great game. She finished with a career-high 13 points, which included going 2-for-3 from the three point line.  She also had career highs 5 steals and 5 assists, with 0 turnovers. More importantly, she orchestrated the offense with efficiency and poise.

Regarding her starting opportunity, Well said, "I prepare every day in practice for moments like this and when my number was called, I was just ready to go" and, in reference to her scoring those 13 popints, added, "I was being aggressive, getting downhill, and get to my spots."

Duffy said she “thought Leila was great. Her stat line -13 points, 5 assists, 5 steals, 0 turnovers - was awesome. I think the greatest thing about Leila is that she just continues to buy into the selfless attitude of like whatever my team needs . She wants to defend. She will play whatever position on the court we need her to. It was only a matter of time before she started hitting some of her 3s. I thought her floor game was good. Her defense was good. Completely poised out there. She was connected with me when we were calling some plays. Just overall a great performance by Leila.”

Samyha Suffren:  Suffren led the Hokies with 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting. The 17 points matched her career high from the Gardner-Webb game earlier in the season.  She said, "I had that attack mentality, just being ready coming off the bench and bein there for the team.". Indeed, she was was in what she called "Samyha Mode," scoring off a variety of  slashing drives into the lane and pull-up jumpshots. Her speed and quickness was evident on both offense and defense, where she pilfered two more steals.  Elizabeth Kitley framed Samyha’s speed eloquently in pointing out how Samyha’s “acceleration from zero is so impressive.”

Suffren is coming back from a shoulder injury that cut short her last season. "It has been hard being out from the team," she said, and that she has been "trying to find the flow. Get back into that attack mentality faster."  Coach Duffy, when asked about Suffren going from being hurt a year ago to scoring 17 points tonight, said, “Samyha is still growing into her role and getting minutes on the court. I thought she was very good with her decision-making, getting downhill when she could. Shot her pull up. Defensively, she was ball hawking and in the right spots. The more we can get her confidence to do what she does, the better we will be. I think that is the key to help our starting group to find those people off the bench and build that chemistry. I thought Samyha did a great job today.”

Sophie Swanson: Swanson, the transfer from Purdue, has had a slow start to her first year at Tech. She is shooting 1-for-18 from three for the season and is likely trying to find her way in the rotation (she has been wearing a mask to start the season). She got in the game in the first quarter and played a season-high 21 minutes. 

After a quiet start, Swanson made her presence felt. In the second quarter, Presbyterian looked to have real scoring opportunity when #4 Morgan Boyd slipped a screen after a switch by Tech. Swanson came over from the weakside to block the shot to herself and lead the fast break. She drove the wing, drew Aniya Trent’s defender, and dropped off a pass to Trent for a layup. Two possessions later, Swanson anticipated a pass to the wing, grabbed the ball, and drove to score, drawing a foul. Unfortunately, she missed the two free throws and later missed some threes, which moved Leila Wells to offer encouragement. Swanson’s true moment to shine came in a two play sequence in the fourth quarter: she drove the left wing and muscled up a layup under duress. Leila Wells stole the inbounds pass and quickly hit a flashing Swanson who put on a show. She took the pass in the lane and spun through two defenders to make the layup and draw the foul. Swanson screamed in exultation, while Wells and the bench went crazy for her.  She finished the game with 6 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block.

The Twin Towers - Amani Jenkins and Aniya Trent have been emerging as reliable contributors over the last five games. Each has had her moment to shine, whether it was Jenkins against Oregon State or Trent against Florida

Jenkins was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field for a career-high 8 points and added 3 rebounds and an assist. Trent had a career high 9 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go along with three rebounds, two steals, a block, and a free throw. Both ran the floor well and had nice moments when they sealed off a defender for an entry pass and score. There were multiple signs in the fourth quarter of their ability to be on the court at the same time and develop their chemistry. Presbyterian went to a zone defense. Jenkins posted up on the right block and motioned to Trent to move away up the lane. That spacing allowed Wells to drop an entry bounce pass to Jenkins who went up strong to score a layup. On the next possession, Trent posted up, turned into the lane, but missed a baby hook.  Jenkins moved over to snag the offensive rebound and putback.  On the very next offensive sequence, Jenkins intelligently moved into the hole at the top of the zone defense, got an entry pass from Spela Brecelj and promptly passed to Trent flashing along the baseline for another score. 

Spela Brecelj: Spela Brelcelj, the true freshman from Slovenia, also made nice contributions in her fourth appearance this year for Tech She grabbed 2 rebounds and scored 4 points on 2-of-3 shooting. Her highlights inckude a quick sweeping drive to the basket for a layup from the wing and a handoff from Trent in which Spela put the ball on the floor, reversed direction with a between the legs dribble, and drove into the lane for a layup. She also worked hard to get through screens across the top and stayed with cutters and screeners.

Kayl Peterson: Peterson was her usual steady self. She only played 14 minutes but provided 4 points, 5 rebounds, and 2 assists. Three of her rebounds were on the offensive end. She continues to show a nice array of under-control hook shots in the lane, even against bigger opponents.

Coach Duffy said she “thought we shared the ball well. It was great to see our freshmen really be aggressive when they were out there. Between Amani, AT (Trent), Spela, just some great minutes overall, finishing around the rim. It was great to see them really contribute today.”

The team is going to need this kind of performance from the bench. Duffy specifically pointed to the need for production from the backup guards, saying, “I think overall we have to get some different kinds of bench production and, between Samyha, Leila, Sophie, we really need them to step up in different ways.”

SIX THOUGHTS AFTER THE GAME

You might think a 92-36 win against the lowest rated team in the NCAA might not merit much to talk about. Well…

Rebounding Advantage - Second Chance Points:

Tech had a clear size advantage and used it to carve out a 49-28 rebounding advantage, including a 23-2 advantage in second chance points off offensive rebounds. 

Coach Duffy said. “Carys and Kilah set the tone with our rebounding. They were in position, grabbed the ball, just had a tenacity about themselves. I thought very efficient with what they did. Again, we thought we had the size advantage and really wanted to capitalize on that, trying to get extra possessions. I thought overall it was pretty good.”

Defense Smothers Presbyterian:

Tech’s overall defense has been really good so far this season and, indeed, played excellent defense for the entire game against Presbyterian. The Hokies smothered the Blue Hose, holding them to 8, 6, 8 points respectively in the first three quarters. There were 6-minute stretches in the first three frames in which Presbyterian did not score.  In addition, Presbyterian never had a scoring run of more than 4 points. The Blue Hose shot 24% for the game from the field, including 25% from three. Even more impressive, the Hokies’ defense limited Presbyterian to 49 total shot attempts. Wells pointed to the team's "togetherbess" and a "good mindset on defense."

Coach Duffy said, “We wanted to get into the gap a little bit more in this game. They had some really aggressive, downhill drivers. We worked on being in the right position and the right spot, so it made it difficult. I thought we communicated well on our ball screen coverage and rotation which led to more bodies around those kids.”

Indeed, the Hokies were well connected on defense. Players, especially those on the weakside, were always aware of where the ball was. They sagged to help and recovered quickly to their players or switched as needed. Forwards like Kayl Peterson, Trent, and Jenkins hedged well or dropped on screens and recovered back to the players. While Tech (like most teams) has issues defending screens in general, it was very good against Presbyterian.  Teammates gave each other room to slide through gaps to stay with players, fought over screens, switched effectively, and recovered back to their original players when they could. The interchangeability of the guards really helped with taking on the challenge.

More Defense - 24 Turnovers Turned Into 41 Points:

The Tech defense forced 24 turnovers (including 13 steals) while the Hokies only committed 10 turnovers themselves. Leila Wells talked about playing the passing lanes and being aggressive that helped her lead the way with those 5 steals. Well, Wenzel, Suffren, Swanson, and Trent all cemented their status in the official Tech Thieves Guild. 

Tech converted those 24 turnovers into 41 points (note that Presbyterian only scored 2 points off Tech turnovers). One of Tech’s problems in the Duke game this past Sunday was that the Tech defense created multiple opportunities but didn’t convert nearly enough of those defensive plays into actual scores. Coach Duffy felt the performance against Presbyterian “overall, it was a little better. We are turning people over, which is good, and doing it in a lot of different ways. A little bit sometimes in the full-court, sometimes in the half-court. Then again, when you turn people over, you have to capitalize on it, and I think that was one thing against Duke we did not do a great job of once we did turn them over. We didn’t get enough points off that. I thought it was a little better today.”

There are going to be times that Tech’s shooting may cool down. With Tech’s ability to play quality defense, it is crucial that the Hokies turn their defense into offense, especially if the offense needs a jumpstart.

Attacking Mindset - Layups, Points in the Paint, Free Throws

There was a concerted effort by the Hokies to attack the basket. Tech only took twelve three point shots for the game, which may not be a surprise given that usual three point threats Wenzel and Baker only played limited minutes (the Hokies only made three shots from beyond the arc, but that is a different story!).

According to Duffy, “As a key, we thought we could get in the paint a little bit more and share the ball. I think the best part about tonight was that it was multiple people doing it. We didn’t have to settle for outside jumpers. We shared the ball, moved the ball. We knew we had a size advantage. It took us a little bit of time to get settled into that. I thought we had some nice high-low looks, whether that was against their zone or man….but overall I thought the fact that we were aggressive was pretty good.”

The aggressiveness inside put pressure on the Presbyterian defense, which sent Tech to the charity stripe for 26 free throw attempts. Unfortunately, Tech only made 13 of those free throws (50%, or the final score would have been worse). Coach Duffy liked that the downhill attacks resulted in free throws, but playfully mentioned what was coming in practice, “We are going to be back in the gym tomorrow shooting some free throws.”

Finishing Layups - Spacing

56-point blowouts generally point to many positives. To outsiders, everything was near perfect. However, coaches always find takeaways, something to talk to the team about in order to foster growth. What will be the “Tech played great, but ____” theme from this game? 

Finishing opportunities, especially layups.

Against Duke, Tech didn’t take advantage of multiple opportunities, and it contributed to the loss. While they were better against Presbyterian, the Hokies could have been even more efficient. Why weren’t they? The Hokies attacked the lane extensively but still had issues finishing. Why?

In many instances, players just need to finish better. Simple. However, there are situations in which the spacing for drives is poor because people don’t move. Three examples:

• Wenzel is a frequent driver, who often seeks out contact. On at least two different drives in the first half, teammates were close to the driving lane but didn’t move, resulting in their defenders being available to affect the layup attempt.
• Wells also drove into the lane in the first half, but a teammate stayed in the lane causing Wells to attempt a finish against two defenders.
• In the second quarter, Trent was isolated inside and had sealed off her defender. Right as she received an excellent entry pass and went to make her move, a teammate ran in from the three point line, bringing her defender right to Trent, which made life difficult. The result: a missed layup.

Basketball Primer: There is a cardinal rule of basketball (see “Read and React Offenses”) that when a player drives into the lane, teammates move. It is called “Circle Movement.”  Players on the side of the drive should move one spot over. For example, if a Tech player drives from the top of the key, a teammate on the wing should get pushed to the same-side corner.  Players behind the drive should be pulled one spot closer, i.e the weak-side wing should move over to where the driver vacated to provide a passing option in case the driver is stopped. Post players should slide out of the way, so if a player drives baseline, a post would slide up the lane; if the player drives into the lane from up top, the post should slide down out of the way to the short corner. The premise is simple: players without the ball move to take their defender away and create space to drive. Their defender has a choice. Stay with the player and leave a lane open for a layup OR stop the drive leaving an offensive player open for a pass and shot.

The basic point is that Tech players need to take their players away to create better driving lanes. There are times that drivers need to recognize when the spacing is not good and avoid trouble. Samyha Suffren, for example, is good at recognizing that spacing is good for attacking the lane.

Focus and Mindset

As Tech’s non-conference schedule nears its conclusion and its second ACC game looms ahead against Florida State, Coach Duffy wants the team to have the right mindset coming off the disappointing Duke loss. She said, “It was a gauntlet the last week and a half or so. The biggest thing we have been talking about is how connected we have to be. We were pretty disappointed after the Duke game and the way we performed. Just really tried to stay together and talk through some of the mistakes we made, and how can we respond emotionally together. I thought that was really good tonight and everyone did their part to help contribute. I am proud of them for that.”

She said, “I thought our response after Duke was really good. I gave them an extra day off. I thought we really got after it yesterday in practice. They were focused. We are talking a lot about the standard we want to bring every day. Any person who steps on the floor. The intensity we have to bring. I think that was a growth area.”

Even her half-time message Wednesday night was less about the game and more about the bigger picture, the standard it takes to play for Virginia Tech. Duffy emphasized that “I think the biggest thing with our group is we are just  talking about the standard we need to bring every day, whether that is from opening tip, coming out of the locker room, trying to be the same every day with our intensity. That was probably the biggest thing we talked about from Duke before we got into basketball things: the heart and hustle and intensity it takes every possession we are on the floor and really represents what's across our chest. That was our biggest goal to come out fighting regardless  it was after a timeout, beginning of a quarter. We substituted. We are trying to get that collective mentality of everyone is ready to go and fight.”

WHAT IS THE NEXT FIGHT?  Virginia Tech plays East Tennessee State this coming Sunday, December 14 for a 2:00 game on ACCNX. Florida State awaits December 18.

Youtube Video of Condense Game