Collegiate Times

Nikki Dixon (21) pushes past Lauren Evans (10) to put up two more points for Clemson. Clemson went on to best Virginia Tech 47-37.

Even with strong start led by Monet Tellier, the Virginia Tech women’s basketball team tallied their seventh-straight loss Thursday night against Clemson 47-37.

The Hokies struggled on offense all night, making only 25 percent of their shots. Despite having lost six games in a row coming into Thursday night, the team was optimistic.

“You always think you are going to win the basketball game,” said junior Monet Tellier. “We just couldn’t get our offense going.”

Coming into the game as the Hokies leading scorer, Tellier scored a team-high 14 points and three assists.

Although Tellier began the game with five straight points, the hot start wasn’t enough to propel the Hokies offense throughout the game.

“I am extremely disappointed in our horrific offensive performance,” said head coach Dennis Wolff. “We were so stagnant on offense that we tried to extend the defense in order to spark the offense.”

These adjustments gave the offense many more opportunities, but they failed to capitalize on their game-high 17 offensive and 42 total rebounds.

Forward Uju Ugoka led the Hokies with 14 total rebounds, eight offensive and six defensive. Averaging 8.4 rebounds per game this season, Ugoka had a great performance on the boards but failed to translate those to points.

“I just have to forget about this game and move onto the next game,” said Ugoka. “I need to get confidence back in my shot.”

The Hokies travel to Miami on Sunday and plan to put the past behind them against the Hurricanes and focus on putting up more points. In order to regain momentum in ACC play Tech needs to avoid the mentality they have fallen into as of late.

“We have been shooting not to miss and playing not to lose,” said Wolff. “That just isn’t to way to go into a winnable game.” 

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 1 issue of the Collegiate Times.