The Ladies host UNC Wilmington today at 5 PM. This is an ACC Network Extra game. I know nothing about either team. Maybe the Lieutenant can chime in with some expertise.
Below is the Hokies roster for this year. We are going to be a young team. We have two seniors who transferred in last year and a junior who is transferring in this year. The rest of the team is freshmen and sophomores. All of our tall girls are true freshmen.
What stats I could find are below:
This is all I have time for today. If I get back from the golf course in time, I will see what I can find about UNC Wilmington.
GO HOKIES!
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UNC Wilmington went 5-25 last season and return four out of five starters. They scored the 16th fewest points per game last season at 54.5 per contest.
Taylor Henderson #2, Point Guard will be the main playmaker. Much like the Hokies, the Seahawks had major roster turnover with nine new players joining the team. Jania Hall #20, a graduate transfer combo guard was also a CAA preseason honorable mention selection. She had 16 double digit scoring games playing at Monmouth last year and was the CAAs Sixth Person of the Year.
This is the first time the Hokies and Seahawks have faced off.
Hokies will look to Carleigh Wenzel at the point, with Matilda Ekh in her outside shooter role. Duffy appeared comfortable rotating in freshman Kayl Peterson, Samyha Suffren and MacKenzie Nelson in the exhibition last week so expect one of them to be the third guard. Freshman Leila Wells may also see some time in the guard rotation.
In terms of Forwards, Carys Baker and Rose Micheaux likely start with Freshmen Ramiya White and Myah Hazelton subbing in as needed.
On the Megan Duffy Podcast (which I think is an official production from the athletics department) she mentioned that Carleigh will play a lot at the 2 and that Mackenzie Nelson is expected to play a lot of PG. It will be interesting to watch how that various players find their roles as the season progresses. One thing Coach Duffy really emphasized was that there will be a lot of subbing and players getting minutes. I am really looking forward to digging all the way into the bench to allow for whole-team development and keeping players fresh.
Based on the exhibition game a couple weeks ago, expect a fast pace almost HAVOC style with frequent subbing to keep people fresh. Lot of under the basket work and driving with less focus on just the perimeter shot.
tbh I am really looking forward to this season and style. I know we will not reach the heights of the last 2 seasons, but we will have a lot of young players growing before our eyes (with all the highs and lows that that entails). I am approaching this season without a lot of focus on the w/L column and look forward to more of the intangibles.
Brooks took his lumps early in the ACC and I am expecting more of the same with Duffy. This league is a bitch to navigate in womens hoops.
Especially with six ACC teams in the Top 25 and four more receiving votes. Basically 10 ACC teams in current top 40.
So far today Duke is up by 50 over Radford with five minutes to play, FSU put up 119 on UNF, and UNC beat Charleston Southern by 30. Georgia Tech beat Winthrop 85-39. Miami is beating Stetson by 24 with a minute to play.
Louisville plays #5 UCLA at 230.
Clemson plays Jax St at 230.
Notre Dame plays Mercer at 5.
Wake plays Queens at 5.
BC plays Lafayette at 5.
SMU plays NC A&T at 530
UVA plays American at 7
Cal plays Saint Mary's at 9
Stanford plays Lemoyne at 10
All of the ACC should be 1-0 if they play outside of Louisville.
Notre Dame put up 105 on Mercer
Clemson won by 34
Louisville lost to #5 UCLA 66-59
Wake had 102 against Queens
BC won 85-55
UNC Wilmington (#352 in NET rankings in 2023-24) squad coming off a dreadful year, finishing dead last in the CAA with a 5-25 record. However, they have added some firepower through the portal in the form of 6-4 Forward Alexandra Zelaya, formerly of UNC, former Belmont guard Kate Hollifield (cousin of Hokies Dax and Jack), former Richmond guard Torin Rogers, and former Monmouth guard Jania Hall. I don't want to be mean, but this was an exceptionally poor rebounding and ball-protection team, pulling down only 34.7 rpgs and an ATO of 9:5:19
Ekh already with a 3
7-0 run to start. Wilmington with a timeout.
Wenzel with a drive and scoop, Hazelton with the offensive board and putback
Lani White, Wenzel, Micheaux, Baker, and Ekh are the starters
Nelson is the first off the bench, for Wenzel
UNCW not looking too great, but seeing some good things from the girls so far. Some nice ball movement and Rose playing pretty physical which I think she will have to do a lot this year
Really enjoying the game so far and the play from the team!
Amazing first quarter!!!!! Lets goooo!!!
Couldn't ask for more in that 1st Q. Love the pace and the ball movement so far
Forced 8 turnovers, tripled the score. Smoke. Peterson looks really good
Is Duffy looking to run pace or is that just the situation of this game?
She wants to run people out of the gym. Someone else mentioned Havoc and that's pretty apt.
I started watching with a couple minutes left in the 1st and I would say Havoc is a apt description of what I've seen. Hokies just running around the court.
That was me and my interpretation of her "Snappy" ball. They are doing a good job with it so far.
UNCW changed up defense in the second half and that slowed them down a tad, but a 100 point game was available.
First Quarter Stats:
16/24 from the field
2-7 from range
8 of 9 scorers
Petersen and Ekh both with 7, followed by Micheaux with 6, Baker and White with 4, Nelson, Suffren, and Wenzel with 2 each.
3 steals, 3 blocks, 7 assists.
UNCW seems to be getting settled in.
2nd quarter is looking like things will be a bit more difficult... representative of the expected highs and lows this year
I like Wenzel attacking the basket.
It's so excited knowing that the ball can go anywhere and anyone can shoot
Great first half.
Only 6 points short for the best first half since joining the ACC
10 players have played, 8 have scored. Wells and Hazelton have not.
Baker with 12, Micheaux and Petersen with 10, Ekh with 9, Wenzel with 6, White with 4, Suffren and Nelson with 2 each.
4 blocks, 6 steals, 11 forced turnovers, 14 assists.
61% shooting for the game, 50% from range, 24 rebounds to 11, including 9 offensive boards. 40 points in the paint. 8 fastbreak points. 17 second chance points. 12 points off turnovers. 14 bench points.
Defense is also just stifling.
29.6% shooting for UNCW, 18.2% from range.
+/- is also looking great.
Baker and Ekh +27
White and Wenzel +22
Micheaux +21
Nelson +18
Petersen +11
Suffren +10
Hazelton +5
Wells -3
15-0 run to start the 1st quarter, 10-0 run to close the 2nd.. very nice
The Dean Smith Four Quarters game
Wenzel is looking really exciting. Hell, the whole team is right now
Biscuits in the 3rd quarter....we're gonna put Bo out of business
I had to pull out of line this morning to get to work. It was going around the building.
We need to get hazelton more comfortable on the floor... we will need her size this season
3rd quarter was definitely our roughest defensive quarter giving up quite a few of layups. Seems like this year we will rely a lot more on preventing the drives rather than having an All American rim protector back there to shrink the court
10 of 11 Hokies have played. Only Ramiya White hasn't played.
I am curious to see how she does.... our 2 biggest players are freshmen who will need to learn the college game
Ekh has such a quick touch. That was a thing of beauty. Great assist on it too
Only catching the last 8 minutes of the game, but I like what I see.
overall a very good game. Lots of players getting minutes. Lots of players filling different roles and showing their different capabilities. We have been getting a little sloppy as the game has progressed but really liking what I am seeing. Clearly this is a mismatch game, but it tells me the right set of expectations will make this a fun season.
My wife watched the game. She told me twice the announcers called them from Wilmington Delaware.
Well for a sold out Cassell there were a lot of empty seats. Some of that was first game against an overmatched opponent, a bit more the 5 pm start.
I was at least happy to see person that forced me out of my season tickets was at least there... Grrr still bitter that I got bumped after buying tickets for years.
Am sure DMHBeaver will get around to a post on today's game, but if planning to watch the ladies, recommend catching the early game at the Ally Tipoff. #1 SC vs #9 NC State. 3pm. ESPN. Should be a very telling game. SC went through quite a few changes and NC State returned the majority of its core.
Plan to post the stats after church and lunch, probably about 2. If you want to start a thread, I can add my tables later.
Speaking of this game - I have 5 tickets to unload to hokie fans that sadly will not be able to use as my wife came down with covid. If there are any hokies on the edge about going let me know! Face value was $26 each but I would go below that or even just dump them to a hokie that wants them
Looks like they sold on ticketmaster... was not expecting that so close to the game