It's Game Day!
#Hokies vs. Louisville 7 p.m. at KFC Yum! Center
Watch live on ESPN3 -
https://t.co/EoEUFFRbag pic.twitter.com/LDDv4oXjtO— VT Women's Hoops (@VT_WBBall) January 7, 2016
Ladies are playing Louisville tonight at 7PM on ESPN3 for those that want to check out what our Ladies are about. The Hokies come into this game with five players scoring more than 8 points per game, with Vanessa Panousis and Hannah Young in double digits so the scoring is pretty even with this team. Young is shooting over 47% from outside the arc on the year going 41-86 so far this season. Panousis and Young are both deadly from the free throw line but after that it drops off precipitously, as the team is now shooting worse at the line than the men's team at 62%. Seems like a summer of free throws may be in order this coming year for both teams.
The other Hokie to keep an eye out for is potential ACC Freshmen of the Year Chanette Hicks, who is scoring 9.6 PPG along with a team leading 3.9 APG and 2.9 SPG. The coaching staff credits Hicks with being a large part in the teams resurgence this year, allowing Panousis to move to Shooting Guard, while Hicks handles the point, frequently driving the lane to draw in defenders only to kick out to an open Panousis or Young for three pointers. Her steals per game are third in the ACC so far this season.
In Tech's last two games they have held their opponents to 30 and 33 total points, so expect to see a very active defense from our Ladies if you catch the game. I figured this would be a good opportunity to watch since there is no NFL or College football tonight and our men's team is off until Saturday against Duke. Our Ladies current margin of victory is 18.9 points per game, as they hold opponents on average to 45.3 PPG.
Hopefully the Ladies keep things going as they play a tough Cardinals team that is already 2-0 in ACC play with wins over Georgia Tech and #19 Florida State. The Cardinals beat the Hokies at Cassell last season 69-49, so this is a good time for payback. The rest of the ACC is pretty bunched up, considering all but one team (Clemson) has a winning record, and all but three teams (Clemson, Pittsburgh, and Wake Forest) are already in double digit wins this season. #3 Notre Dame is the top team so far this year, also at (13-1, 2-0), with #18 Duke and #19 Florida State also in the rankings. The Hokies currently sit at #27 in the AP Poll.
At 13-1, the #Hokies are off to their 2nd best start in program history!
#WeAreOne #BeEpic pic.twitter.com/m30BsgS8vO— VT Women's Hoops (@VT_WBBall) January 5, 2016
Comments
Looking forward to it. Let's go Lady Hokies!!
Holy shit, we are 13-1?
If they win tonight, they will have the second best start in program history behind the 1999 team that went 28-3, starting the season 18-0, eventually getting to 26-1 that year.
13 all after the first quarter.
Our girls wearing almost all black uniforms for this one
This game is just another reason the ACC should have a network.
Just all around embarrassing how poor the effort was in the second quarter from the Hokies. They failed to work the ball inside almost the entire quarter, turned the ball over several times and basically let Louisville do whatever they wanted to. 31-18 at the half after the 13-13 start to the game. Louisville dominated on the offensive boards this quarter, scoring 10 points on second chance opportunities in the quarter.
The Hokies played better in the second half but it didn't make up for the second quarter. They still struggled to get a good look at the basket throughout the game. Even when the clock was winding down it was taking them 20+ seconds to get a shot up. They seemed to be getting back in the game in the third quarter, getting within four at one point but that was as close as they could get it. The refs had some heavy whistles, especially around rebounds in the second half, although I don't watch enough NCAAW to know if that's normal or not. Really felt like Panousis needed to be a bit more selfish in taking shots rather than passing. The freshman, Hicks, reminds me a ton of Chris Clarke. This year she might be a half step too fast for the flow of the game, overcommitting on at least three occasions where if she was more methodical it likely would have been easy baskets. 56-48 the final score here.
The curse of the special uniforms continues /s
Tough game for the ladies. I watched as much of the blurry ESPN3 presentation as I could stand, but Itrepeter's comments were, as always, spot on. We have a good team, but they won't win them all. Good defense, but still a struggle sometimes to score. It's always tough to play and win on the road, and it looked like a good crowd there at L'ville. We will, however, win a bunch of games this season, I think. Shake it off and get ready for the next one.
From what I read it was a tough loss, wish I could've watched. Ah well, ...we're still going great. Looking forward to the next game.
Honestly, I'm not concerned over this loss. Louisville was a Top 50 RPI team. We can't lose all of them, but we can miss a few. These ladies are still looking tournament bound come season end in my opinion from the games I've watched.