Everything From Virginia Tech's Carys Baker and Carleigh Wenzel After Win Over Loyola Maryland

Virginia Tech guard Carleigh Wenzel and forward Carys Baker spoke to the media following the Hokies' 64-48 victory over Loyola Maryland. Here's the entirety of what Wenzel and Baker had to say:

We have Carly Winsel and Caris Baker in the room. If you could just um announce your name and your outlet when asking questions, that would be appreciated. You can open up the floor now. Um I was curious, uh have you guys each of you worked on anything part of your games in the offseason that you kind of see paying dividends so far this season?

On if either has worked on part of their game that they see paying dividends this season:

CB: "Yeah, I think, for me, obviously my three-point shot is one of my strengths, but I know that coming into this year, Coach [Megan Duffy] has talked about a lot, they're going to take that away because they know that I can shoot the ball. So, just being able to find other ways to score. That's something that Coach IC [Itoro Coleman] tells me every game, you're not just a three-point shooter. You have more versatility and you have more things that you can do. So, if they take that away, figuring out how else to score. And I feel like today was one of those games that I found other ways to score."

CW: "Weight up, staying in the weight room, things like that. I think my body is able to kind of take a little bit more hits without being fatigued on a little bit and just continuing to be a three-level scorer, not to let one takeaway kind of predict the rest of my game. S, being able to just continue scoring at whatever level that may be."

On Baker being more aggressive seeing out her shots:

CB: "I think my teammates did a really good job at finding me. In the second half, [Mackenzie Nelson] was doing a good job dumping it down. Obviously, we have really good guards like Carleigh and Mack, so when they penetrate, it just leaves a lot of people open. So, I think they did a really good job at that. And then, I think I just had the confidence from them as well. Like I said before, like Coach IC giving me that confidence before the game, [that] you have so much more in your bag to do. I think last game, I was a little bit tentative. But this game I figured out finally, like I do have more things I can do other than shoot the three."

On the 14-0 run to start the second quarter:

CW: "Really just. coming out and understand we need to play disciplined and kind of punch them in the mouth. I don't think we are being as aggressive as we could have or should have been. So just staying disciplined defensively. But also just kind of taking it and going and not just pulling it out and running offense right away, but pushing when we got the ball out the net."

On Nelson's 11 assists, a career-high:

CB: "Yeah, Mackie is one of my best friends. [Editor's note: Wenzel then chimed in with "Our best friend."] Our best friends. Also my roommate. So yeah, just to see her get confident in that ability. Mack works so, so hard. She's one of the hardest workers on our team. And so, just being able to have that confidence in her, just to bring the ball up and find the open person. I've been playing with her since high school, so that's something that she's always been able to do. And then just translating that to college basketball has been huge to see. So, the progress that she's made from last year to this year was honestly amazing. And yeah, she's been pretty vital for us in these past couple games and she will continue to do that."

Q: The lead stayed pretty stagnant, about 10 to 12 points for a lot of the game. What made it difficult tonight to really make that run and pull away?

CW: "I think just their physicality. I think that we weren't expecting it and we should have. They kind of came out and weren't letting us get things right away. But just playing through kind of first and second actions. They also kind of got deep into their um plays in terms of they weren't taking what the first option was of their sets. They were running it through all the way. So, that's something we just have to again stay disciplined on and continue making different reads defensively."

On defensive adjustments after the first quarter:

CW: "I think it starts with the guards. I think the posts do have a lot on their shoulders with defending um, pretty strong individuals. Um, so the guards just coming in and kind of being able to scoop out rebounds and stuff like that. Just the smallest things that can help defensively or ball pressure. Um, I know they're working down there and doing trying to do their job. So, we obviously need to do our job. And if it's um being entered to the post a little too easy, like that's something the guards have to pick up and be able to pressure the ball a little bit more or um just get tips deflections on small things.

On the shift and what Tech did differently to set up the 14-0 run in the second quarter:

CB: "One of our strengths is moving and sharing the ball with each other. I think we have a lot of chemistry. We know where our strengths are, where our weaknesses are, where to find people on the court. So, I think one thing that we did really well was moving the ball. I think we got away from that a little bit in that stretch of time where there was a bit of a lull in the game. But I think when we talked to each other, we figured out ways to get each other open. And our pace is probably one of our biggest strengths, too. So, we got back to that. I think we got a little bit tentative with moving the ball quicker and getting it out-of-bounds quicker. And I think our pace picked up a lot more."

On how Wenzel would evaluate her effectiveness of being a "three-level scorer", as she alluded to earlier:

CW: "I think my three was falling well. So, I kind of got a little bit shot-happy. Not something I would say was in a bad way. But I could have got it downhill a little bit more. That's something again, you got to go back to film and just see your reads that I could have had differently. But I think I shot the ball pretty well. But there are obviously certain shots and certain different kind of things I could have taken just differently. But I'll see that afterwards when we go back to the drawing board."

On Loyola Maryland not tallying any points off fast break:

CB: "I think it's just our work at practice. I think we really pride ourselves in our transition defense. I think that's something that we've been trying to improve from last year and so, I think today was good. we talked about it too. I think that's something that we bring up in timeouts. Hey, they haven't gotten anything in transition. So that's just something that we kind of start from the game talking about and then throughout the game, those are similar to like boxing out, rebounding. That's another thing we bring up is: 'No transition points for them.'"

On Tech taking 12 triples in first half, three in second and what Loyola did to run them off the three-point line:

CW: "Yeah, just ran us off. We kind of scattered for them to kind of go under and just sit back a little bit, which they were doing in the first half. And that's why we took so many shots from the outside, but just running us off the line on things like that. And we were trying to adjust to it a little bit in the second half. We call them zips, but just strong-side passes to the wing and stuff like that when you're attacking, just kicking out to wing instead of trying to drop it low. And that's something again, you go back to the drawing board and you see what you have or what you didn't have. But I think it was being told to us in the game. But again, when I'm driving, my first option is Carys. So, sometimes, I shouldn't be forcing it, but that's who I'm kind of looking at. And again, that's just something you continue working on, but we see the adjustment, so we're going to continue it."