After dropping a pair of close games against Syracuse and Stanford in their last two home games, the Virginia Tech women's basketball team was looking to send seniors Rose Micheaux and Matilda Ekh out with a win in their game at Cassell Coliseum. To do it, they would need to do it against a very good California team that had locked up a bye on the first day of the ACC Tournament.
Taking a five-point lead into the fourth quarter, three turnovers in the first minute of the quarter led to six Golden Bears points and you thought, 'Here we go again.' Instead of a repeat performance that they had against Stanford, the Hokies were able to execute their offense and make some key pressure free throws to escape with a résumé building victory.
Needing wins to stay inside the 68-team field, Virginia Tech improved to 17-10 overall and 8-8 in the ACC with a Quad 2 win over Cal, which fell to 22-7 overall and 10-6 in the ACC. The Golden Bears knocked down 10 3-pointers in the game, which kept them in it. However, the Hokies once again got balanced scoring and went 17-for-18 from the free-throw line to pull out the win.
In their final games at Cassell, Ekh finished with 21 points and five assists and Micheaux had 11 points. Ekh did all her scoring from inside the 3-point arc making just one 3-point attempt, her only one attempted in the game. Carleigh Wenzel was again huge for first-year coach Megan Duffy with 19 points, which included a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line. Lani White had nine points and Mackenzie Nelson added eight. Freshman Kayl Petersen had five big points as well.
the vision 👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/2wJKRXijJO
— Virginia Tech Women's Basketball (@HokiesWBB) February 23, 2025
Late in the game, Cal did a nice job of keeping the ball out of Wenzel's hands and away from the foul line, but White and Nelson each made theirs to seal the win. Now Virginia Tech heads out on the road for their final two conference games, at Boston College on Thursday night and Clemson next Sunday afternoon. They are currently in the No. 9 seed for the ACC Tournament and are on course to avoid playing on Day 1 if they take care of business in the final two games.