The Ladies travel to Tallahassee today to meet the 4-8 Florida State Seminoles. The game will be on ACCNx. ESPN says VT by 2.5 with over/under of 153.5 which translates to 59.8% VT on the ESPN predictor. FSU has lost to three ranked teams, UConn, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and receiving votes Georgia. In the one common opponent FSU lost at Florida 89-67; the Hokies beat Florida at home 68-64.
The Seminoles are going to be a problem on the boards for the Hokies. Most of their players are 6' or taller, led by 6'6" #24 Jr Center Pania Davis. They will probably start a grad student, two seniors and 2 juniors. There is only one freshman and one sophomore on the team.
Six players score 9 or more points per game led by #15 Williams at 15. They shoot 39.5% overall and 33.9% from three. And a respectable 75.4% from the line. Assists to turnovers are 12.8 to 16.8.
I think this game could be anything from a blowout either way to a close game. If the ladies shoot decently and limit turnovers, we could win going away. If we shoot poorly and play sloppy basketball with turnovers and poor rebounding, we could lose going away. If we play the way we have been the last few games, this will be a close game. FSU has been player tougher competition than we have; so they may be more battle ready than we are.
LET'S GO HOKIES!
Comments
The way they've been shooting, I fear this will not be a pretty game. They are talented, and all capable of contributing, but the obvious slump concerns me. And free throws. But, I'll watch and hope and yell...
LET'S GO...
HOKIES!
Maybe we finally break out of our shooting slump. We can hope.
Off to a hot start!
half way through the first quarter... shooting looks pretty good... 5 assist on 7 made FG... zero turnovers
end of 1st qtr... 26-12 HOKIES
45-28 HOKIES at half
13 assists on 18 made FG (72%). That's awesome! Mackenzie Nelson with 7 of those. That's more awesome!
13 assists.....1 turnover.
Carleigh still shooting like Carleigh; but the rest of the team is making shots. FSU is out numbered tonight. Down 2 players off a 10 player roster to start the night and lost their best scorer during the game.
4:21 left in the 3rd.
Baker is 3 rebounds from a double-double, as is Daley.
Nelson is 1 assist away.
Wenzel needs to just stop shooting and see how many assist she can get.
I know she can shoot. But tonight she just ain't got it.
59-42 HOKIES end of third.
Let's close this thing out ladies.
Double Double by Mackie Nelson
With 5 minutes left, Baker needs 1 rebound and Daley needs 2 for a double-double.
If Wenzel just shoots 40% we are closing in on 100 tonight
At least she did not have any turnovers.
79-54 Final
Double Double by Daley with 35 seconds to go
Mackenzie Nelson double-double... 18 points (career high), 12 assist (career high)
Mel Daley double-double... 16 points, 10 rebounds (career high)
Carys Baker 21 points (team high), 9 rebounds (one short of a double-double)
22 assists (that's getting into elite team territory)
only 8 turnovers
FAM!
Carleigh is not as bad a shooter as she has been showing. Soon, I hope, she is going to break out of this slump and become a better contributor to the offense.
Long term her numbers here really aren't that different unfortunately. She is what she is. Her % down a couple points but almost everything else is identical. Works out to about 1 more made baskets every two games last year vs this year. The biggest difference year over year is she is shooting about 1.5 more 3s than last season per game but only making .3 more of those.
Last year she averaged
34.7% shooting (4.2/12.1)
33.6% 3pt (1.5/4.4)
77.8% FT%
14 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.2 stl, 3.7 ast, 3.5 TO
This year
32% shooting (4.1/12.8)
31% 3pt (1.8/5.9)
77.6% FT%
13.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.6 stl, 3.6 ast, 3.5 TO
I agree she is basically what she has been on the court during her career. I think she is better than what she has shown in games. She was a highly desired four star. And I assume Coach Duffy sees something in practice because she keeps sending Carleigh out with the first team. I'm just hoping that player starts to show up in games.
She had zero turnovers tonight, so that's a great first step to getting her groove back!
Oh me of little faith. Other than the always discussed Wenzel, the ladies showed they can shoot and play some ferocious D when it all comes together. We still had our spells, but the assists and low turnover number really made for a fun game to watch.
Way to go, Hokies!
Watched the replay late last night. We made their defense look like garbage. I don't think we are THAT good, but FSU can't be THAT bad.
The team does a great job passing and moving the ball, but they sometimes try another pass when they have a good shot.
Sometimes they attempt to make a really difficult pass that doesn't even create a better shot. I feel like in other games we will do this for a quarter or more. I only noticed this happen once last night but I was only monitoring the game and not actively watching.
FSU was without two players, Emma Reisch and Sydney Bowles due to injury. Those two average 18.9ppg, 6.2 rpg and 4 apg. Sole Williams, their leading scorer is also working her way back from a knee injury suffered at beginning of December so she only played 18 minutes last night. We caught them at a bad time.
So this win has the potential to be a quality win down the road?
If they get those players back, possibly. No announcements on what their injuries are and expected timeline.
Yeah, that would explain what I was wondering about. I mean, we had a good game, and they had some moments, but it just didn't look like an ACC team. But hey, a ween is a ween, man.