After a loss at Notre Dame on Thursday night, the Virginia Tech women's basketball team was looking to rebound against a tough North Carolina State team in Cassell Coliseum. It would have been a huge win in terms of their NCAA Tournament résumé, but it didn't turn out that way.
Tied at 19 through the first quarter, the Hokies and Wolfpack were tied two minutes into the second quarter when disaster struck. NC State outscored Virginia Tech, 21-4, over the final eight minutes of the first half to take a 17-point lead into the locker room at 44-27 and never looked back. In fact, they outscored the Hokies in the final three quarters and got what they wanted when they wanted it when it came to execution on the offensive end.
Megan Duffy doesn't beat around the bush after NC State's win at Virginia Tech
After the 82-62 loss, Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy was disappointed in her team's effort on the defensive end against a team that has many players who can score in bunches.
“Disappointed with our defense this afternoon,” Duffy said. “We knew that we probably had to have our best defensive effort of the season. NC State has five elite-level players who can score at a pretty high clip, and I thought we were a step slow on our scout. Just had too many breakdowns. I thought we had some good moments throughout the game as it went on, but overall, not enough defensively to stop their big three.”
Defense is something that Virginia Tech is going to have to turn its attention to this week before they head out to California for games against Stanford and Cal. For the second straight February, the Hokies' NCAA Tournament hopes hinge on breaking a losing streak with March around the corner. Both California and Stanford are Top 55 in the NET rankings, which is good if Tech can take advantage of the opportunity.