Everything From Virginia Tech's Leila Wells and Samyha Suffren After Presbyterian Win

Virginia Tech women's basketball guards Leila Wells and Samyha Suffren spoke to the media following the Hokies' 92-36 victory over Presbyterian. Here's the entirety of what Wells and Suffren had to say:

On Wells' assessment of her first start:

LW: "I think I did pretty well and prepare every day in practice for moments like this. And when my number was called, I was just ready to go today."

On Suffren's assessment of her performance (season-high 17 points):

SS: "I just had the attack mentality, just being ready coming off the bench and just being there for our team."

On Wells' effort on both offense and defense (13 points, five steals):

LW: "We work on it every day in practice. Our coaches do a great job on the scout. I was just being aggressive, trying to get downhill and get to my spots. And then defensively, just playing the passing lanes and being aggressive like I know how to do."

On Suffren's recovery from injury that cost her the second half of the 2024-25 season:

[Editor's note: Suffren stated that there were a pair of injuries: a labrum tear and a tightened capsule.]

SS: "It's been hard obviously being out from the team. But just coming back, still trying to find the flow, just trying to get back into Samyha mode. That's really what it is. But my teammates are doing such a great job helping me get back in the game and get back to that attack mentality faster. So, it's really refreshing being back on the court and being really a part of the team and everything."

Q: 17 points, was that Samyha mode?

SS: "Oh, that was Samyha mode. Yes, it was."

On what was working defensively and in transition (24 turnovers, 41 points off TOs):

LW: "I just think as a team, we're very aggressive. Our togetherness picking back up from our last game really helped us to be aggressive and have a good mindset on defense."

On the mindset coming off a 70-54 loss to Duke:

SS: "Coming back from our loss, just changing our mindset. We worked on it in practice, like just being ready to go no matter what the team looks like. So, if we see something that's open and we see if someone needs help, we're just there. And especially just communicating on the floor, either it's offense or defense. That's the biggest thing that we worked on today. And we just progressed very well from the loss."

Q: Is that what helped you score 17 tonight?

SS: "Mhm, just making it easier for ourselves. When things were open, we thought too much. I could just tell everybody was in their head more, so we just needed to play free, play like Hokies, who we are. That's what we worked on in practice and that's what we did today."

On the 49-28 rebounding margin, in favor of Tech:

SS: "Rebounding, boxing out, getting those boards, just crashing the boards."

LW: "I think it's just a attention to detail and locking in on, focusing on that today. That was our emphasis over the last couple days to be aggressive on the boards."

On outshooting Presbyterian, 73-49:

SS: "Like what we talked about in practice, just walling up on defense, moving our feet, being ready to play. Having that ready-to-play mentality. And then, our offense is just making it easy for ourselves and just if something's open, take it. If you see a teammate, pass it. Just making it easier for ourselves and not thinking too much on offense."

On contributions from the freshmen (nine points from Aniya Trent, eight from Amani Jenkins) and the importance of a game like today in giving them experience:

SS: "The freshmen been killing it especially in practice. They're just ready to go no matter when we need them in the game and I love that about them. Then, this was just like a confidence booster because the whole team knew they had it. And this was just to show themselves that they had it. So, just making sure that they know that they can do it and we have confidence with them."