The month of January began with a major dud from the Virginia Tech women's basketball team, but it ended as good as it could have.
The Hokeis blew a fourth-quarter lead at home on New Year's Day to Miami, then were blown out at Louisville. Instead of heading south quickly, Virginia Tech turned things around and did so in a big way with six straight wins to close out the month. Despite all of that, they are still squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble with a make-or-break February facing them.
That begins on Sunday afternoon when they host Virginia at Cassell Coliseum. The Cavaliers and Hokies are both 7-3 in the ACC and on the bubble, according to Charlie Creme at ESPN. Virginia Tech can help itself out big-time with a win, as February's schedule is brutal with Notre Dame, North Carolina State, Stanford, California, and North Carolina waiting down the road.
Megan Duffy happy with teams ability to grind out wins
On paper, the Hokies should have had an easy time with Pittsburgh on Thursday night. It didn't turn out that way. In what could have been a devastating loss, Virginia Tech was able to break open a 55-50 game late in the fourth quarter with a 12-0 run to close out the game for a 67-50 win. It was a grit and toughness win, to say the least.
“I’m happy with our grit and toughness today,” Duffy said. “It was not the prettiest basketball game, and give Pitt some credit for that, their kids played very hard, made some big plays. But I was just really proud of the way we stepped up in the fourth quarter defensively, whether it was our rebounding, taking a charge, and then offensively, finally got back to maybe ourselves a little bit. Just sharing and moving the ball, and got some really nice possessions.”
Moving forward, a loss like that could be devastating for the Hokies come mid-March.
Carleigh Wenzel & Carys Baker powering Hokies
Duffy has done a good job adding through the Transfer Portal this season with Kilah Freelon from Texas Tech and Mel Daley from Northwestern, but you can't deny what Carleigh Wenzel and Carys Baker sticking around under Duffy means to this team.
That was never more evident than on Jan. 22, when the Hokies trailed Clemson late in the game, but a furious rally led to an improbable comeback. Late in the fourth quarter, Virginia Tech won the game when Baker and Wenzel pulled off a perfectly executed play out of a timeout after a tremendous offensive rebound from Freelon. It's the little stuff like that which has led to a 17-5 record through January.