Everything From Virginia Tech's Carys Baker, Carleigh Wenzel and Megan Duffy After Win Over Clemson

Virginia Tech women's basketball head coach Megan Duffy, plus guard Carleigh Wenzel and forward Carys Baker, spoke to the media after the Hokies' 71-68 victory over Clemson Thursday evening. Here's the entirety of what Duffy, Wenzel and Baker had to say.

Duffy's opening statement:

MD: "Woo. Trying to catch our breath. What an amazing locker room I just came from. Just the pure joy and just excitement and celebration for each other. I'm so proud of our team for fighting. Obviously, the first three quarters weren't great for us. Give Clemson a lot of credit for the way they came out in a road game. They just were tough and physical, and we had to make a lot of adjustments. I just think overall, somehow in that fourth quarter, when we were down a lot, [Virginia Tech's players] found a different gear, they found a different heart. We've talked a lot about our balance with our team this year, of multiple people helping us in all different ways, but these two to my left and right, Carleigh and Carys, were amazing. Got stronger defensively as the game went on and made some huge buckets late, especially in late-game situations."

On being able to hang tough in the game after trailing by eight with 2:24 left to play:

CW: "I think we just stayed together. I think there are multiple times where we just came together after timeouts or huddles in general and said, 'We got to pick it up. Let's go.' And I think it clicked in that fourth quarter. You know when a team has momentum and you know what side of it you're on. And I think that fourth quarter, it was on our side that whole quarter. So, I think just staying together and keeping each other pumped up, keeping each other out of each other's heads. Things like that. And I think it showed tonight."

On their play down the stretch:

CB: "Yeah, I mean, we talk about a lot at practice at the end. We just do a lot of late-game situations. Coach Duffy puts us in those situations, so we know exactly what we need to do. I think we ran those plays and we did a lot of things successfully. Obviously, there were moments in the game where it wasn't going the way we wanted it to. But I think in that fourth quarter we came in with, like Carleigh said, a lot of momentum. We knew that we practice all these things all the time and I think that was kind of what we talked about a lot in our huddles. We've done this before. We've done it at practice. We've done it at shootaround. So, we knew exactly what we were coming in. We were super confident in what Coach Duffy was calling and I guess we went out there and no matter what, if we scored, if we didn't score, we knew that we were going to execute it. We executed them really well and it went our way."

CW: "Yeah, I think it just started on the defensive end for us. We kind of picked it up in that fourth quarter; I think it showed and it led into our offense. I know me and Carys had a moment where we just came together and said, 'We need to lock in and we need to take over.' I think we did just that on both ends of the ball. I know there were a couple times where it just shot out pretty far on their end. It came right back into their hands. But just not giving up on the play and continuing to keep things going on our end. Not just giving them easy buckets off their offensive rebounds."

On 28-8 margin in regard to points off turnovers:

MD: "I don't know if we were great in transition, to be honest with you. I thought we had timely baskets in transition. I thought we created some turnovers that helped late in the game. I thought both teams had some uncharacteristic turnovers. I mean, dead-ball turnovers, the illegal screens were kind of all sprinkled out throughout the game. So, when you look back, it wasn't a lot of flow on either side with some of that. But, I think the good thing was that we got into the bonus pretty early and made some free throws. I thought our team was very good when we did turn it over. We were pretty positive about it and got to the next play pretty quickly, especially late. I'll tell you what, our fan base today was special. They helped us when we needed the energy, when we couldn't get a rebound for that stretch and kept giving Clemson possessions. Whether they were booing or cheering or giving them some extra juice on defense, it was a phenomenal environment today in Cassell [Coliseum]."

On the play that freed Samyha Suffren for a wide-open three to cut Clemson's lead to one:

MD: "Just a little quick hit. It broke down a little bit and that's where we always talk about how you've got your base action you're trying to do and then, you've got to play out of things. We made a great, great pass across the baseline and Samyha was wide open. No hesitation, shot it. I was just so proud of her because she had some up-and-down moments through the game. But no bigger than a few of her steals and that big three. Just a phenomenal execution out of the back end of a play."

On the positive defensive shift for Virginia Tech in the final quarter:

CW: "I think we just pushed up a little bit more on Raven Thompson, she was getting us on that guard post switch. Just kind of boding us. So, we kind of decided to jump it a little bit, get her on her toes and just have her second-guess things. And I think that went well. I think we scrambled out of things well, doubling in the post a little bit more. Just putting bodies on people in boxing. I think again, there's a lot of times where the ball just shot out pretty far and that's pretty uncharacteristic. So, just adjusting to that and understanding what we need to do better to make sure it just didn't keep going their way."

On Kilah Freelon's offensive rebound with under a minute to go:

CB: "Oh my gosh. I swear Kilah was flying through the air when I looked up. I saw the shot go up. I'm going in and here comes Kilah out of the air, just grabs it. We sat down at the timeout and I was like, 'Kilah, I don't even know how you held on to that ball.' I was just in disbelief. But I mean, Kilah does that all the time at practice for us. We joke a lot at practice, like someone's got to double-box Kilah out because she gets every single rebound at practice. So, she works at it every day. We talk about it every day. So, I'm just so, so proud of her. And obviously, sometimes it doesn't show in the stat sheet, but Kilah is huge for us and we need her in the game all the time. She's been huge for us and that was the biggest rebound of the game. So, I was super proud of her."

On Wenzel's shooting improvement and what she credits that to:

CW: "I think the break was just good for me. Just good to mentally reset. I did not touch a ball in that break. I just went home, really didn't watch any type of basketball. Just getting your mental straight and coming back and understanding that it's time to work. I think when I came back, I was in the gym a lot just getting extra reps. Just seeing it go in, things like that. So, I think I kind of got my rhythm back. I'm going to continue getting in the gym with Coach [Sharnee Zoll-Norman]. I think she does a huge part of it. I know me and Coach Duffy have talked a couple times about things we can do differently to get that flow back, that confidence back up. I think it's starting to come back around."

On Baker's go-ahead bucket with 11 seconds left in the game:

CW: "We knew what we were going to get into. And I told Carys, I said, 'Hey, I'm driving baseline.' I said, 'So, I cut, go get it.' And that's exactly what we did, she went and got it. I didn't think it was going to be that on the money. I thought we were going to have to make some reads out of it. But we talked about it, we knew that's exactly what we were kind of going to go for, because that's what was there the whole game. And I trusted her at the end. I know she trusted me. So, whatever way it went, that's what we kind of went with and it went in our favor."

CB: "Yeah. I mean, like Carleigh said, I think we had that moment. We literally looked at each other in the fourth quarter, we said, 'We got to take over this game.' And so, that's kind of what we did. And we came out of that timeout and Carleigh said it, we ran a similar play before and it was a turnover. And I think Carleigh and I, we could have gotten upset. We could have just, I don't know, just went back on defense and been really frustrated with that play. But we looked at each other and we were like, 'That's a good look.' Like Carleigh had the layup if she wanted, but we talked about it. We came out, Carly was like, 'I cut and I'm going to throw it.' It was successful and we were really excited. We celebrated after, a little bit too long, but yeah, it was good. I trust Carleigh in those moments and she trusts me. So, I mean, just being able to play, we've been playing with each other for a while now. So, we trust each other in those moments and we knew that we had to take over."

On what's been key to the team's success:

CW: "I think just playing together. Starting on the defensive end, not coming in just focused on our offense, but picking it up defensively, whether that's on-ball pressure. I think Leila [Wells] and Samyha do a great job just setting the tone on-ball and then on the backside, just us helping us. Knowing who's going to get what shots, what shooters to run off the line, things like that. In boxing out, I think we talked about it a lot, just winning the rebounding battle. That's kind of been our main focus for the last couple games. And I think when we do that, we win the game. And so, trying to continue staying locked in on the little things that we know makes us successful."

On having former Hokie Cayla King back in the building:

MD: "It was awesome. Cayla brings us so many memories here at Virginia Tech with her career and leading us to a Final Four and all that. We've still stayed in touch and she got to play professionally for a little bit and then, wanted to get into this coaching world. So, God love her for that. But yeah, sounds like she's doing a great job at Clemson, getting exposed to a lot of different things within the business. And I know her first time back, we just wanted to give her a little token of our appreciation, give her a big hug. And I know she has a bright future, whatever she ends up deciding to do down the road."