Women's Basketball today at 7PM

The Lady Hokies play #5/6 Baylor today at 7 PM in San Antonio. The game is on ESPN2. Pam Ward has the play by play; LaChina Robinson is the analyst. Baylor is the #2 seed in the Riverwalk bracket. The peoples bracket on ESPN picks Baylor 91% to VT 9% to win. Baylor is 25-2 overall with losses to current #15/16 Arkansas(78-83) on Dec 6; and to Iowa State(71-75) on Jan 16. They were scheduled to play UConn on Jan 7 and that game was cancelled. So they had a 2 week layoff from Jan 2 until they played Iowa State on Jan 16.

Their roster does not look too intimidating sizewise. They are a little taller than the Hokies overall; but their tallest starter is 6'3" Queen Egbo. The player who matches Kitley at 6'5" is a freshman who only plays 10 min/game. Baylor is a more mature team than the Hokies with three seniors and 2 juniors in the starting five. Their starters play 25-30 minutes per game; but the most of the rest of the team plays at least 11 minutes per game. Stamina may be an issue with our 7 players trying to stay with their 10 or 11.

THE STARTERS:

1 NaLyssa Smith F 6'2 Jr. 3rd Year
30.1 MIN/G 18.1 PPG 9.1 RPG
2.4 PF 1.1 Assists 2.8 TO 0.4 A/TO

12 Moon Ursin G 5'6 Sr. 4th Year
31.2 MIN/G 11.6 PPG 6.7 RPG
1.6 PF 3.9 Assists 1.6 TO 2.5 A/TO

21 DiJonai Carrington G 5'11 Sr. Grad
22.7 MIN/G 13.5 PPG 4.7 RPG
2.3 PF 2.3 Assists 2.6 TO 0.9 A/TO

25 Queen Egbo C 6'3 Jr. 3rd Year
24.2 MIN/G 11.3 PPG 8.6 RPG
2.5 PF 1 Assists 2.6 TO 0.4 A/TO

2 DiDi Richards G 6'2 Sr. 4th Year
29.2 MIN/G 6.7 PPG 3.1 RPG
1.8 PF 6.3 Assists 2.6 TO 2.5 A/TO

THE BENCH

20 Hannah Gusters C 6'5 Fr. 1st Year
10.6 MIN/G 5.4 PPG 2 RPG
1.3 PF 0.2 Assists 1 TO 0.2 A/TO

3 Trinity Oliver G 5'9 R-Jr. 4th Year
1.1 PF 1.3 Assists 1 TO 1.3 A/TO
17.4 MIN/G 4.7 PPG 3.3 RPG

24 Sarah Andrews G 5'6 Fr. 1st Year
11.8 MIN/G 4.3 PPG 1.2 RPG
1.2 PF 1.4 Assists 1 TO 1.3 A/TO

51 Caitlin Bickle F 6'0 Jr. 3rd year
14.4 MIN/G 4.6 PPG 4.6 RPG
1.4 PF 1 Assists 0.7 TO 1.5 A/TO

11 Jordyn Oliver G 5'10 So. 2nd Year
11.1 MIN/G 3.6 PPG 2.2 RPG
0.7 PF 2 Assists 0.8 TO 2.6 A/TO

10 Jaden Owens G 5'8 So. Transfer from UCLA started playing when all xfers were ruled elegible
9.3 MIN/G 2.5 PPG 0.9 RPG
1.1 PF 2.2 Assists 0.5 TO 4.7 A/TO

Baylor may be the best team the Ladies have played. Queen Egbo will be a challenge for Kitley; but she does average 2.5 fouls per game. If the Hokies can challenge her early and get some early foul calls, the game may open up for Kitley.

Baylor is a high scoring team and a good defensive team. They average 81.6 ppg and allow 54.5 ppg. They scored 101 vs Jackson State in the first round.

STATISTICS:

I think the Hokies have a chance in this game; but Sheppard is going to have to find her game. I don't think we will see as much double and triple-teaming of Kitley. And when they do double her, I don't think we'll see anyone left alone under the basket. There is going to have to be some offense from outside. Sheppard, King, and Amoore are going to have to make shots. This would be a good game for Baines to be aggressive inside; we need to get some of the Baylor starters in foul trouble.

Baylor is not a particularly good three point team, only averaging 32.5% from three; but they only allow 26.7% from three. They are a great inside team shooting 48.6% overall from the floor. They only take 16% of their shots from beyond the arc; so their average inside the arc is 52%. The flip side of my comment about getting their bigs in foul trouble is that Kitley is going to be challenged inside defensively and she may have problems staying on the floor. If she can't stay in the game, it's going to be a long day for the Hokies.

Baylor's opponents have attempted 32.5% of their shots from three and have averaged 7.5 fewer shots per game than Baylor. Baylor averages 16.7 offensive rebounds per game; and out rebounds their opponents by 19.2 rebounds per game. They rebound their own missed shots and don't let their opponents have second chances. We will need to box them out on both offense and defense to keep them from having a big advantage on the boards.

The bad news is that if we get by Baylor, we will face the winner of #13/15 Tennessee vs #16/14 Michigan for the opportunity to probably face UConn. This is a tough bracket. The next, game if we win today, will be Saturday.

Go Hokies!