The 13-5, 3-3 Ladies travel to Texas to meet the 7-10, 0-5 SMU Mustangs. The game will be an ACCNextra game. The Hokies have an 83.1% chance of winning this game.
The Mustangs are a completely new team. First year head coach Adia Barnes brought in 12 transfers and 3 high school players this year. Ten different players have started a game; eight players have started at least 7 games. No player has started every game. So I don't know how to guess who will start. But these five players have started at least nine games:
#2 5' 10" soph transfer(Cal) guard Zahra King has started 16 games
#12 5' 9" senior transfer(North Texas) guard Kyla Deck has started 13 games
#23 5; 9" senior transfer(Arizona) guard Paulina Paris has started 10 games
#1 6' 1" senior transfer(Ole Miss) guard Ayanna Thompson has started 9 games
#33 6' 2" senior transfer(Oakland) forward Miriam Ibezim has started 9 games
These five have started 1-8 games:
#7 6' 2" redshirt senior transfer(Penn State) forward has started 8 games
#3 5' 5" grad transfer(Arizona State) guard Tyi Skinner has started 7 games
#4 6' 1" senior transfer(UT Martin) forward Anaya Brown has started 7 games
#11 6' 1" junior transfer(Arizona) forward Sahnya Jah has started 5 games
#21 5' 10" redshirt senior transfer(Stanford) guard Jzinaya Hariel has started 1 game
SMU has struggled in ACC play without a win so far. Their closest loss was to Ga Tech by 8 at home. In the common opponent, they lost at Louisville 91-58; we lost 85-60 at Louisville. Not much difference.
Tyi Skinner (13.6), Zahra King (13.6), Paulina Paris (10.7), Sahnya Jah (9.7) and Kyla Deck (10.1) lead the scoring for the Mustangs who average 66.1 ppg on 39.4% shooting overall and 31.8% from beyond the arc. SMU has been outscored by 3.8 ppg and outrebounded by 5 rebounds per game. They only average 10.9 assists per game; but have 17.5 turnovers. They do have 10.8 steals per game.
For comparison VT averages 74.3 ppg on 42.4% overall and 28.3% from deep. We average 16.5 assists and 14.1 turnovers per game.
All the metrics say we should win this game; but SMU is an aggressive defensive team causing a lot of turnovers and making a lot of steals. The Hokies will have to take care of the ball. King (48.8%) and Deck (39.6%) are deadly from three; perimeter defense will be important. SMU does not have a dominating center; but they are aggressive going after rebounds. The Hokies will have to block out well underneath.
This game is almost a homecoming for Carleigh. San Antonio is only a four hour drive from Dallas. She should have some supporters at the game. Hopefully the good Carleigh will show up for this game.
LET'S GO HOKIES!
Comments
Let's Go....
Do better than last night
One missed foul shot would have made it better. It was actually good until the end. Again.
Their defense isn't good. We are just missing shots. Tough watch so far. 4 for 12 inside perimeter
16-8 after first. Should probably be more like 22-8
Yeah, I just came here to post with it as 20-12 almost halfway through the second. This game is a masterclass on how to not play good, disciplined basketball.
Lots of really bad passes trying to reach a covered teammate.
Free throw line keeping them in game.
That's more like it. 46-17
What game are you watching?
Damn it google🤣
🤣 🤣
Bad foul by Freelon
Great...facing a team with a bunch of sick people...got to hope none of ours bring that home
Better be poppin' Emergen-C, Airborne, and Zicams like its candy on the flight back!
Just refusing to put this very reduced team away in front of 100 fans
Nelson apparently forgot the part about taking charges of you have to get your feet set.
Twice now Wenzel has tried to bring the ball up the court and was about 2 seconds late in realizing they were going to try to trap her. WTH is she looking at when she is moving up court?!?
She does that alot, fortunately not many ACC defenses use press and traps
57-33 after three quarters, but feels like we could be up by even more. Need to play smart ball control and run clock 🏀
Yeah should be almost to 70 by now
Strong finish to the 3Q push the lead to 24. Now close it out!!!
Pulling Freelon out 1 rebound shy of a double-double
Anyone else laughing every time they say we have a tough tenacious defense?
Doubled them up 70-35
Nice pass by way of SMU defender's hand!
18 assists on 27 made buckets
SMU out of gas with a thin bench today, get the second string in for the last 4 minutes. Suffren and Baker with great second halves imo
Yeah...this one wasnt fair
20 assists and 22 forced turnovers
My biggest concern is that even in a game like this Petersen only got 13 minutes. Has 0 points, 0 shots and 3 rebounds
Sophomore slump is real
We had more blocks than they had assists.
Get out the hand sanitizer RIGHT NOW. Don't bring that crap back from Texas
If this was a game where "Virginia Tech played very well" for the entire game, I'd hate to know what the color commentator would think a bad game for VT would look like, lol
I mean, the score says we played very well, but like LT stated, this game wasn't fair with the decimated SMU bench. Coach Duffy has a lot to clean up before hosting Clemson next week!