After dropping their last two games to Notre Dame and North Carolina State, the Virginia Tech women's basketball team hit the road for a trip to Northern California for a pair of huge ACC games in terms of not only the conference standings, but also for their NCAA Tournament résumé.
First up was Stanford, a team that was a Quad 1 opportunity. Trailing by two at the half, the Hokies need a late-night rally to notch a massive win. That's what they did, outscoring the shorthanded Cardinal, 47-33, in the second half to notch a huge 79-67 win. The win improved the Hokies to 19-7 overall and 9-5 in ACC play. More importantly, it was a Quad 1 victory that was very much needed.
So, what was the message for the Hokies down two at halftime late at night in the West Coast?
“We were kind of teasing with the time change that it was like Midnight Madness,” Duffy said. “Stay awake, can you stay hungry? But I thought we still had some better basketball to play. Just the fight that they came out with, the ball was moving, sharing. We didn’t let it get sticky. A lot of people stepped up.”
That's what her team did, led by Carys Baker, who tallied 24 points, 15 in the second half. Maybe lost in all of the numbers was the contribution from Texas Tech transfer Kilah Freelon. She scored 15 points, grabbed five rebounds, dished out four assists, and had two big blocks. Carleigh Wenzel had 13 points, five assists, and four rebounds. Maybe the biggest stat was that she had no turnovers.
Virginia Tech answered Duffy's halftime challenge and came out with a ton of fight to collect arguably their biggest win of the season to date. They have a chance to go perfect on the trip Sunday afternoon at California.