Leading 53-29 at halftime on Saturday afternoon, the Virginia Tech women's basketball team seemed to be in a good position at home against Coastal Carolina. However, the game isn't over until the clock reads triple 0's after the fourth quarter.
Coastal Carolina turned things up in the second half, and in the third quarter, they held the Hokies to four points on 2-for-18 shooting. They didn't exactly set the world on fire themselves, scoring only 12 points, but they cut the deficit to 16 points. Early in the fourth quarter, the Chanticleers got the lead down to 11 before Virginia Tech's top players took over.
Carleigh Wenzel had a three-point play and Carys Baker drained a big 3-pointer with four minutes left that allowed the Hokies to pull away for a non-conference victory at Cassell Coliseum to improve to 4-0 on the season. Coastal fell to 2-3.
Virginia Tech regroups to beat Coastal Carolina
Wenzel set the tone offensively for Virginia Tech with a double-double with 23 points and 10 assists. Texas Tech transfer Kilah Freelon continues to impress as a Hokie with 18 points and eight rebounds, while Baker had 15 points and six rebounds. She was 3-for-6 from behind the arc.
Mackenzie Nelson had 12 points and four assists for Virginia Tech, which was just 9-for-29 on 3-pointers, and they were out-rebounded 33-32 by Coastal Carolina. Virginia Tech had 21 assists on 27 made field goals, but they did turn it over 17 times, while forcing 27 Coastal turnovers. Northwestern transfer Mel Daley had nine points and five rebounds.
Virginia Tech will host Niagara on Thursday night at Cassell before things get much tougher. They will travel to James Madison on Nov. 23 for a difficult non-conference game before a trip to the Virgin Islands and playing BYU on Thanksgiving night as part of the Paradise Jam.