No. 9 Virginia Tech's thumping by No. 7 LSU provides more questions Than Answers

Jack Brizendine

Editor-in-Chief

December 1, 2023

BATON ROUGE, La. — When No. 9 Virginia Tech walked off the court in Charlotte, N.C., a month ago following its 80-76 loss to then-No. 3 Iowa, there was a sense of hope around the program.

Sure, the Hokies missed out on an opportunity to earn a statement win against last year’s national runner up, but they never looked outmatched. 

Tech had three players finish in double-figures and received timely contributions from role players; reserves Carleigh Wenzel finished 4-of-4 from the field, Carys Baker hit a timely three to tie the game and Clara Strack hauled in a key offensive board in her 20 seconds of action.

The collective effort helped Kenny Brooks’ team go blow-for-blow with the Hawkeyes, keeping the game within a possession until the final seconds of the game.

On Thursday night in Baton Rouge, La., all of that optimism came to a grinding halt.

No. 7 LSU dismantled VT in a 82-64 beatdown at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, handing the program its worst loss since Jan. 2022. 

“[We’ve] got to get better,” Tech head coach Kenny Brooks said to reporters after the game. “It’s November, we’ll get better.”

Improving on Tech's performance is setting a pretty low bar.

Outside of Georgia Amoore, the Hokies were only able to muster 41 points on 11-for-40 (28%) shooting from the field. 

Three of LSU’s starters finished with 19 points or more; three of Tech’s starters combined for 14 points.

LSU head coach Kim Mulkey only needed to play seven players to cruise to victory; the Hokies played 10 different players.

Strack, who checked into the game for the first time with 3:55 left in the first quarter, fouled out at the 2:03 mark a quarter later.

The freshman center supplied Tech with five of its 21 total personal fouls on the night, surrendering 26 free throw attempts for LSU.

“It was difficult,” Brooks said of VT's foul trouble. “[There] was a lot of cloudiness out there. We have to learn how to adjust to the circumstance. But again, with a very inexperienced group together, opportunities like this will provide that for us and we’ll learn from it and get better.”

Tech finished with 24 fouls against Iowa, but a solid 38% shooting performance from behind-the-arc kept the Hokies afloat. Against LSU, they shot just a mere 19% from downtown, netting only four trey’s on the night.

Part of the reason for the sluggish performance from range is because the Hokies have been lacking real threats on the floor outside of Amoore and Kitley through the first month of the season.

Cayla King — Tech’s only other returning starter from last year’s Final Four team — shot 3-f0r-16 combined between the Iowa and LSU games

“Obviously we need that third and fourth option that’s going to be consistent and we haven’t had that this year,” Brooks said. “Liz and Georgia are phenomenal players when we can’t rely on their productivity to be at the highest without somebody else stepping up and contributing.

“Cayla King needs to step up. Matilda Ekh needs to be a little bit more consistent. We’ve got to have some more production from our post play on our bench. But I think we can learn a lot from this film.”

At the end of the day, that’s the point of big-time matchups in the first month of the season — learning.

There’s still three months of basketball until the ACC tournament starts. And in order for Tech to make a similar run to the one it went on last year with a seemingly brand new roster, these early tests will be critical.

“It’s November and at the end of the day we have three returners,” Amoore said. “[We have] three people who know exactly what Coach Brooks wants and we have nine other girls who don’t. We need to figure out how to gel, play with chemistry, figure out our personality and who we are as a team.

“I don’t think we have that covered yet. It’s not even just against Iowa or LSU. It’s every single game. We have to develop that personality and learn from each other more.”