Hokies Falter Late at Duke

Duke closed the game on a big run to turn a close game into a blowout, knocking off the Hokies 85-57 in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Tuesday night.  Tech dropped to 13-17 overall and 4-13 in the ACC.  Duke is now 26-4, with a 13-4 mark in league play.

Jarell Eddie began the game with two three-pointers, and another trey near the 13 minute mark of the second half cut the Duke lead to 53-47.  The Hokies stayed within arms length for most of the remainder of the game, but the Blue Devils finished on a big 20-2 run on their Senior Night.  Eddie finished with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Leading the Hokies in scoring was, of course, Erick Green.  The senior had 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting.  He began the game 10-of-16 before finally missing his last three shots.  C.J. Barksdale was active again, though it didn’t show in the box score (six points, four rebounds).  After playing well against Florida State, Robert Brown had just three points on 1-of-5 shooting against Duke.

Green narrowly finished behind his teammates in total field goals, finishing with 10 while they combined for 12.  Tech shot 38.6% from the field.

The Blue Devils shot 51.7% from the field, including a 52.2% mark from three-point range.  Seth Curry scored 20 points on his father’s alma mater on his Senior Night, while Ryan Kelly had 18.

Duke outrebounded Tech 37-31, though the Hokies more than held their own on the boards for much of the game.  In the end, Tech did a poor job of fighting through screens yet again, and the Blue Devils had too many shooters to handle.

Tech returns to action on Sunday against Wake Forest.  Tipoff is scheduled for 2pm, and the game will be televised by the ACC Network.

Box Score

9 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. I have to give our boys credit for staying in it with Duke on their home floor for most of the night. I think that at the end of the day, we simply didn’t have enough horses to hang with a Top 5 team for the whole 40 minutes. The kids gave great effort, though, despite the final score.

  2. had to work ot, but listened to most of game. since i couldn’t see game: what changed to cause the 20-2 run (i think it started ~9 minute to go mark)? i know we cleared the bench at ~2:15 to go, but the onslaught was underway 7 minutes before that.

    did we run out of gas? bad on court match-ups? shooting? rebounding? turnovers? other??

    sounded like on radio a lot of one-and-done (one shot/no o rebound) on our part coming down the stretch. but it had to be more than that.

    thanks.

    1. Ran out of gas.Shots not accurate, poor position on rebounds and low energy. We just wore out.

  3. Not surprised. Given short bench this year Tech never had much of a chance to play .500 ball. Spot VT 60-something points vs Duke and Tech would be break even. 60 points spread out elsewhere would have won a few ball games we lost. But that’s a lot to ask.

    It’s a long wait, but I’m anxious to see how the new talent and a longer bench will help Coach JJ’s team to improve next year.

    25 vs Duke did not hurt Green’s chances for POY, Story above does not mention how Plumlee did. Green had a helluva season, but I’m pretty sure Plumlee averaging double-digit double-doubles trumps Green’s scoring average.

    Green may be stronger than I thought. I’ll be interested to see how he competes in the pro game. Those guys are brutes, and up to this point I’ve thought Green will get beat up at that level. But maybe he survives. Bless his heart. Kid’s got game.

    1. Hey OandM 69. How dare you say to Eric Green bless his heart. Eric is better than any other player in the ACC right now. You don’t get invited to Chris Paul and Jason Kidd’s NBA Pro camps each summer if you don’t have game. He will be late first round or early second round NBA pick. He will have a better NBA career than anybody who comes out of the ACC this year. I have watched every game he played this year. Nobody in the ACC can create their own scoring chances like Eric. He consisently gets double and triple teamed every game. Eric has double figures in all 30 games. He has 20 or more pts. in 27 out of 30 games. He has 25 or more pts in 18 games. He has 4 assists and 4 rebs. per game. Plumlee has only 7 games of 20 or more pts. and only 3 games of 25 or more pts. He has 9 games of 14 or less pts. He has 2 games of 8 pts. and one game of 4 pts and
      3 rebs. No pts in the 2nd half of the MD. game. Eric is the more consistent player game in and game out. Eric is the player of the year in the ACC.

      1. I think that if he were playinng on a team with a winning record, Green would be a lock for ACC Player of the Year. Unfortunately, he isn’t and therefore someone else like Plumlee will probably win it. But that doesn’t diminish the season that Green’s had at all. He’s put together one of the best seasons that any VT player has ever had.

        1. Plumlee does not deserve it. If it does not go to Eric, it should go to Shane Larkin

  4. Here is another example of our best players playing against Mcdonalds all Americans.Its hard to reqruit against the top teams in this league and its going to get tougher with the new additions in the league. I think we need to try the Gonzaga route and get more International. We just got a German guard, will have to see how it pans out. Maybe a Juco player in the mix. I think it can be done but not easily.

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