Women's Basketball Fades Early, Routed by Louisville Sunday

The Hokies didn't make a three-pointer Sunday in the 25-point blowout.

Virginia Tech Athletics

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Virginia Tech women's basketball was quelled by Louisville in the fourth game of its ACC slate Sunday, failing to raise its level to .500 in league play. The Hokies were handled for much of the showdown, falling 85-60 and dropping to 1-3 in ACC play.

FINAL | Tech 60, No. 13 Louisville 85

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

"Congratulations to Louisville, I thought they were the tougher team today," said Virginia Tech head coach Megan Duffy. "Really feed off their home crowd. Coach [Jeff Walz] does a great job of putting some different lineups, whether it's a bigger lineup or a smaller lineup. Sometimes, they get stronger when they sub. So, I thought, overall, their effort exceeded ours."

Louisville (14-3, 4-0 ACC) forward Laura Zeigler was highly effective and efficient Saturday against the Hokies (11-5, 1-3 ACC); she logged 12 points in the first half on the back of a 4-for-5 shooting effort, ending the day with 18 points on an even 50% from the field. Zeigler paced the Cardinals in points (18), rebounds (nine) and assists (four) on Sunday.

Though Virginia Tech blanketed the Cardinals' leading scorer, Tajianna Roberts, holding her scoreless on four shots in the first two quarters, it was then supplanted by the efforts of a Cardinal from the bench: Imari Berry. Berry, a true sophomore that logged 4.9 points per game in 2024-25, supplied 13 points on 5-for-8 shooting, including canning all but one of her four looks from deep.

Anaya Hardy also made life difficult for the Hokies; the sophomore forward logged eight points and eight rebounds, helping to silence the Hokies on both ends of the floor.

Though Virginia Tech kept the game close early, it couldn't do so for long. The Cardinals stretched the lead out after the first 4:30, where the score was 9-7. Following that, the Hokies evaporated, surrendering 10 points to Louisville and only accumulated three points themselves. Virginia Tech made just one of its nine shots to close the first half; that makes was supplied by forward Carys Baker, who supplied six first-quarter points on 3-for-5 shooting. Basker ended the contest with a team-high 16 points on 8-for-14 shooting with nine rebounds — though she went 0-for-5 from deep.

However, Virginia Tech was summarily outmatched in the second half; the Cardinals out-tallied the Hokies by a vast 25-15 margin, knocking down 11 of their 18 (61%) from the field. Virginia Tech's struggles continued from deep; the team did not make a three in the first half, clanking all 10 of its looks. And that total continued for the entirety of the game; the Hokies did not knock down a single one of their 16 attempts from deep. The output marked the first time since Dec. 21, 2015, against Radford that the Hokies did not tally a single made three-pointer.

"We're gonna just try and get in the gym and get better.," Duffy said. "That's a really challenging stat. I mean, we look at those numbers, and sometimes, you're going to take a couple bad three off of a late shot clock or contested shots. But I thought a lot of them, when we moved it, we had pretty good looks and weren't able to hit them."

Inside, they hit on 24 of their 43 (55.8%) shots. However, due to its struggles from the perimeter, Virginia Tech was hamstrung as its spacing was compromised.

The struggles compounded in the third quarter, where the Hokies were outscored 26-15. Virginia Tech was outrebounded 12-6 in the frame and logged just 10 shots and 15 points, while Louisville took 23 shots and canned 10.

The Hokies appeared visibly frustrated, with forward Kilah Freelon (eight points, seven rebounds) pounding the ball down following an unsuccessful possession.

Guard Carleigh Wenzel struggled against the Cardinals, knocking down just one of her 10 shots for two points. After a solid outing against Miami where the redshirt junior guard poured in 16 points on 6-for-11 shooting, Wenzel took a step back. Dating back to the start of December play, which includes seven games, Wenzel has eclipsed a .300 mark from the field on one occasion: the aforementioned Miami contest.

Meanwhile, Louisville was anchored by a balanced scoring output; five players entered the contest averaging 8.9 or more points and six Cardinals logged eight or more points Saturday.

For Virginia Tech, as it was following the collapsing overtime loss against Miami, the focus pivots towards finding a larger level of consistency. While it didn't deliver on a constant basis Saturday, there were moments where Virginia Tech possessed the firepower to match Louisville, though those moments came too late and in too few moments.

"After the Miami game, we were pretty devastated with how that fourth quarter in overtime went," Duffy said. 'We're trying to dig deeper into finding a little bit more consistent play and the effort it takes, whether you're on the road or protecting your home court. And I do think today, despite the score, there were some positive moments of us executing a little bit better and responding out of a couple timeouts. I think the key with us is getting more players on board to do it consistently, and we're going to keep fighting and swinging and punching to figure that out."

Virginia Tech will stay on the road for its next contest; the Hokies will travel up to Syracuse, New York to play Syracuse on Thursday, Jan. 8 at 6 p.m. ET. The contest between the Hokies and the Orange (13-2, 2-1 ACC) will be available for viewing on ACC Network Extra. Syracuse's only two losses came to then-No. 6 Michigan (81-55) on Nov. 23, then to Duke (7-151) on Dec. 28 to open its ACC slate.