Virginia Tech Women's Basketball Vanquishes Pitt for Sixth Straight Victory

The Hokies dispatched Pitt to move to 7-3 in league play.

Virginia Tech Athletics

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Virginia Tech women's basketball captured its sixth straight victory of the season, improving to 7-3 in league play with a 67-50 victory over Pitt Thursday night.

Make that SIX IN A ROW! 😤 pic.twitter.com/2NRffnnF1C

— Virginia Tech Women's Basketball (@HokiesWBB) January 30, 2026

"I'm happy with our grit and toughness today," said Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy. "It was not the prettiest basketball game, give Pitt some credit for that. Their kids played very hard, made some big plays. But I was just really proud of the way we stepped up in the fourth quarter defensively, whether it was our rebounding or taking a charge. Then offensively, finally got back to ourselves a little bit, sharing and moving the ball and got some really nice possessions."

The game was relatively close until the midpoint of the fourth quarter. With 4:05 to play, Panthers (8-15, 1-9 ACC) guard Megan Hollinsworth knocked down a free throw. That was the last point Pittsburgh scored; it also did not knock down a field goal after the 5:44 mark. Virginia Tech (17-5 ACC, 7-3 ACC) now sits fourth in the ACC standings after its victory over Pitt, possessing a head-to-head tiebreaker over Syracuse.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Virginia Tech held a 47-40 advantage after shooting only 4-for-16 from the field in the third frame. Both teams struggled with shooting throughout the contest, combining to shoot 45-for-122 (36.9%). However, the Hokies keyed in and put the game away thanks to two key factors.

First, Virginia Tech negated Panthers guard Mikayla Johnson's efforts in the fourth quarter. Johnson knocked down eight of her 14 shots from the field, logging a game-high 21 points vs. the Hokies.

However, Virginia Tech took her out of the equation in the final frame, holding the redshirt junior scoreless in the fourth quarter and forcing her into two fouls. The latter of those two fouls brought her to five on the game and put her out of the game with 3:23 to go. The remainder of the team shot 12-for-39 (30.8%) for a total of 29 points.

The second factor? Virginia Tech outshot Pitt, 17-6, in the final 10 minutes of basketball, making more shots (7) in the final frame than the Panthers attempted.

"I just thought we tightened up a little bit," Duffy said. "It helped that [Johnson] fouled out late in the quarter, which took the ball out of her hands a little bit. But I think our post defense was really good inside on 21 [Fatima Diakhate]. I thought we got out on [Carla] Viegas when she got hot a few minutes earlier in the game. Just tightened up on a couple things. Guards got their hands on a couple little steals and prevented some easier possessions for them."

In comparison to Pitt's rather one-dimensional scoring output, the Hokies' effort was relatively balanced. Tech ended with three scorers in double-figures, paced by Carleigh Wenzel's 17 points and supplemented by 13 and 10 points by forwards Carys Baker and Kilah Freelon, respectively.

Baker was stellar, contributing 13 points and 9 rebounds. Though she was held to a 3-for-13 clip from the field, she reached the free-throw stripe for six total foul shots and knocked down all but one.

"I think if shots aren't falling, I have to figure out ways to affect the game in other ways," Baker remarked. "So, I think I cleaned up my rebounding and then also helping everyone on the defensive end as well. So, shots weren't falling but it happens."

And although Pittsburgh held guard Carleigh Wenzel to a 6-for-18 clip from the field, Wenzel still ended the day with a team-high 17 points, also tacking on three assists and a pair of blocks for good measure.

Freelon was the most effective of the three from the field, knocking down five of her eight looks from the field while gobbling up 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Moreover, she grabbed five offensive rebounds, part of Virginia Tech's 18 total in the contest. That total nearly doubled Pittsburgh's output of 10, though the Panthers held a slim 26-24 margin in regard to defensive boards.

"I think we had a lot of people step up and help Kilah and me rebound," Baker said. "... I think that was a big emphasis going into the second half, we needed to have more people helping on the rebounding end."

Though Virginia Tech is on a six-game heater, its latest win came over a Panthers squad that entered the Thursday tilt with a 1-8 record in league play, an 8-14 overall mark and a five-game losing streak.

Of Virginia Tech's six straight wins — over Syracuse, Boston College, SMU, Clemson, Wake Forest and now, Pitt — four ranked outside the NET rankings' top 120 and two ranked below the top 200, though Clemson (No. 40) and Syracuse (No. 41) represent extremely significant Quad 1 victories for the Hokies. That six-game slate clocks in at an average NET rating of 149.3.

Yet, context matters on the other front, too. Tech has beaten those six teams by a combined 127 points, good for a 21.2 points/game gap. Negating the Clemson game, which was decided by three, the average jumps up to 24.8 points per contest.

Last year, Virginia Tech went 9-9 in the ACC, though it lost four of its final five games by five points or fewer. This year, it's sported a +103 point differential in its ACC contests and only dropping games to Duke (No. 2 in ACC), Miami (No. 11) and Louisville (No. 1). The Cardinals, Blue Devils and N.C. State are now the only squads ahead of Virginia Tech in the conference standings; only Louisville (W12) and Duke (W11) have longer winning streaks in the conference than the Hokies.

So, for a squad that began 2026 with consecutive losses — vs. the Hurricanes (75-67, OT) on Jan. 1, followed by the then-No. 13 Cardinals (85-60) three days later — it's a near-180-degree shift for a unit that appeared to be faltering less than a month ago. Why is that exactly?

"We've always been a positive team, but there's a difference in a team that's positive and a positive team that's pushing each other to be even more positive and work harder each day," Freelon said. "I feel like all of us have been pushing ourselves more and more with the extra shots, the extra defensive stuff, the extra clips. I feel like that's what's making us be more successful right now."

The six-game heater comes at an optimal time, too. That's because Virginia Tech's next test is against its archrival — Virginia. The Hokies and Cavaliers (15-6, 7-3 ACC) will square off on Sunday, Feb. 1, at 2 p.m. ET inside Cassell Coliseum. Virginia enters the contest off a 109-103 overtime victory over Wake Forest; the Hokies defeated the Demon Deacons 85-57 on Jan. 24.

Coverage for the Commonwealth Clash contest will be available on ACC Network Extra. Last year, the two teams split their two-game slate, with Virginia winning 73-65 at Cassell Coliseum and the Hokies triumphing 87-62 at John Paul Jones Arena.

Virginia Tech's six-game winning streak entering the first part of the Commonwealth Clash is its longest win streak since a 10-game heater spanning from Jan. 21, 2024, to Feb. 25, 2024. Virginia Tech enters its matchup with Virginia not merely motivated and not merely fresh off wins over a pair of Quad 2 opponents in the midst of its streak. The Hokies arrive battle-tested, shaped by a grind-it-out win over Pitt and a resilient comeback against Clemson. The team has found a new gear this month.

"I think we're just growing together," Duffy said. "I think that's always been our plan from back in the summertime to continue to improve. We find that balance of really leaning on each other, of how we're going to do that. I think we're pretty connected right now."