Three Takeaways from Virginia Tech Women's Basketball's 85-60 Loss to No. 13 Louisville

Kaden Reinhard shares three big takeaways from Virginia Tech women's basketball 85-60's loss to No. 13 Louisville.

Virginia Tech Hokies Women's Basketball stands shoulder to shoulder for the national anthem. | Virginia Tech Athletics.

On Sunday, the Hokies lost to the No. 13 Louisville Cardinals, 85-60, in Louisville, where Tech trailed by double-digits for almost three full quarters. Here are three big takeaways from the contest:

FINAL | Tech 60, No. 13 Louisville 85

— Virginia Tech Women's Basketball (@HokiesWBB) January 4, 2026

No. 1: Louisville's offensive output was unmatched

The Cardinals' offense was impressive from whistle to whistle, but the first fiery output allowed for an easy second half.

At the halftime break, Louisville was nursing a 44-27 lead with senior forward Laura Ziegler tallying 12 and Imari Berry netting 11 off the bench.

What seemed like second nature for the whole contest, the Cardinals were able to connect from range, with the opening 10 minutes seeing Louisville drain all three of their attempts from deep.

It was the bench for the Cardinals in the first half that provided the spark, as Imari Berry checked in and quickly nailed two shots from behind the arc.

"Sometimes they just get stronger when they sub," Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy exclaimed.

Louisville ended the half 5-for-9 from distance, and that success carried over into the second half with the Cardinals netting an even cleaner 6-for-10 from behind the stripe.

After a quiet first half from the Cardinals' average leading scorer, Tajianna Roberts, she connected for a solid nine-point outing in the second, in part to making all three of her attempts from range.

"I think when you've got someone that's worried about someone so much, they aren't leaving to help," Louisville head coach Jeff Walz said regarding the distributed scoring with Roberts' calm first half. "So that spreads the floor and opens the floor for us."

No. 2: The Hokies are still struggling from range.

After the 2024-25 campaign for Tech, the Hokies' split from distance was 223-for-592 (37.7%). Compare that to Tech's opening 15 games (pre Louisville contest), a 9% drop to 78-for-272 (28.7%).

The Cardinals held the Hokies without a bucket from behind the stripe, an 0-for-16 effort.

Tech was getting in good, open shots against Louisville, but the connection was never there for the Hokies from range, which just stretched the deficit further with each miss.

"We're gonna just try to get in the gym and get better," said Duffy. "I thought a lot of them. When we moved it, we had pretty good looks, and we weren't able to hit them."

Tech, following the Louisville game, only has one player who has compiled a three-point percentage over 30%, Carys Baker (34.7%), who is still down from her 2024 numbers of 41.8%.

No. 3: It's early, Tech can still salvage conference play

The Hokies are four games into ACC action, and they are already staring in the face of a gloomy 1-3 conference record.

Tech has faced some respectable competition early on, including the No. 13 Cardinals today and the reigning ACC champions, the Duke Blue Devils.

The Hokies could easily be sitting at 2-2 as well. In their last contest against Miami, they were sitting on an 18-point lead when the Hurricanes surged back to force overtime and an eventual win.

"After the Miami game, we were pretty devastated with how that fourth quarter and overtime went," Duffy exclaimed. "We're trying to dig deeper into finding a little bit more consistent play."

So far, the only conference victory for the Hokies has been on the road in Tallahassee against the Seminoles. They'll stay on the road in hopes of crawling back closer to .500 against Syracuse with their contest on January 8, at 6 p.m. EST. Coverage will be available on the ACC Network Extra.