4 observations from Virginia Tech women's basketball revenge rout of James Madison

When the Virginia Tech women's basketball schedule was released, a lot of people circled the third game of the season for Megan Duffy's club, at home against James Madison. It was a big revenge game for the Hokies after a nine-point loss last season on the road.

After a pair of blowout wins over North Carolina Central and Delaware to begin the season, the Hokies entered the game looking for a win against the 1-1 Dukes. Going into the game, Duffy and her team knew that is was going to be a physical battle between two teams who are going to make it difficult to score.

When the dust settled, it was a 40-minute rock-fight between two in-state teams, and the Hokies used a dominating second half defensively to break a three-game losing streak to James Madison. Here are three observations as the Hokies improved to 3-0 with a trip to VCU on Thursday night.

Virginia Tech's defense dominates the second half

Virginia Tech took a 26-16 lead into halftime, and in the second half, they turned up the defensive pressure, and it was just as difficult for the Dukes to score in the second half as it was in the first. The Hokies made it difficult for the Dukes to run their offense. At one point in the. fourth quarter, the Dukes went nearly nine minutes without a field goal. Defense wins games, no matter how tough things are on the other end.

Carleigh Wenzel overcomes a slow start to lead all scorers

It was a tough first quarter for Carleigh Wenzel. JUM was physical with her and got her off her game a little, and she appeared frustrated at times. It was a tough shooting game for Wenzel, just 4-for-14 from the field in the game, but she was 6-for-7 from the free-throw line. She had an impressive stat line of five rebounds, four assists, and three steals. How physical was James Madison with her? She had seven turnovers, and JMU got away with a couple of fouls when taking the ball from her. All in all, Wenzel will take the win and get ready for VCU.

Jessica Dimaro continues to impress as a true freshman

True freshman Jessica Dimaro impressed against NC Central and Delaware, but Sunday night offered a step-up in competition. It was going to be interesting to see how she handled the more talented players from JMU. She finished with seven points, 14 rebounds, and two blocks. The competition will get tougher, but so far, so good.

More Virginia Tech observations

• Through their first two games of the season, Samyha Suffren and Leila Wells combined for 47 points, eight assists, and nine steals. Against JMU, they combined for 14 points, seven rebounds, and four steals. Their contributions continue to be huge.
• Aniya Trent had just two points, but she had six rebounds, two assists, and a block.
• Tennessee transfer Alyssa Latham had eight points and seven rebounds off the bench and will get better with more time after working her way back from an injury.
• Virginia Tech outrebounded James Madison. 47-32, while shooting just 4-for-17 from behind the arc. There are going to be nights like that, and they relied on their defense to remain undefeated early in the season.

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