It's not many times when a college basketball team leads 37 of the 40 minutes of a game and loses. That was the case for the Virginia Tech women on Thursday night at home against Stanford at Cassell Coliseum.
Virginia Tech held the lead for nearly the entire game, however, not putting the Cardinal away cost them and cost them dearly. An 11-point second-half lead at home against a team that flew cross-country and had one true road victory in 2024-25 is a game you must win. No excuses.
Instead of picking up a huge win in terms of keeping their NCAA Tournament hopes alive, the Hokies turned the ball over, did not run their offense crisply, and failed to get stops late in the game. It all added up to a devastating, 75-74, loss to fall to 16-10. After the game, first-year Virginia Tech coach Megan Duffy pointed to one area where her team needs to be better.
Megan Duffy points to area that cost Virginia Tech against Stanford
There were a number of ways Duffy could have gone to point the finger at where things went wrong for the Hokies on Thursday night. Failure to get stops, take care of the ball, failure to be able to inbound the ball, and run the offense. She chooses to group all of that in her postgame press conference.
“Our execution just wasn’t good,” Duffy said. “I thought we got tight. I thought Stanford just continued to hang around, made some big shots downhill, made a three and our execution was very weak. Even when we got a couple good looks, we just didn’t finish. Missed a couple free throws.”
All of that adds up to a one-point loss in a game that they simply can't lose. You could make the case that 26 games into the season, those mistakes should not be happening. By now, every one of her players have a full year of basketball under their belt, and execution like that is tough to watch at this point in the season.
The loss does not completely burst the Hokies NCAA Tournament bubble, but it puts their chances in doubt. It feels like if they want a shot to get in, they need to sweep their final three regular-season games against California, Boston College, and Clemson, the last two on the road, and then win at least one ACC Tournament game. That still may not be enough, but back-to-back home losses to Syracuse and Stanford have them in this position.