The 9th-ranked Virginia Cavaliers crushed Virginia Tech in Charlottesville Wednesday night, 71-48. The Hokies’ point total was their lowest of the season, far below the 62 points they scored in a 62-61 win over Georgia Tech on January 18th.
The Hokies (16-6 overall, 5-5 ACC) are now 1-4 in ACC road games, with their average margin of victory in the four losses at 20.75 points. Tech’s January 22nd one-point win at Clemson remains their only bright spot in ACC road play.
The Hokies shot just 35.7% (15-42) overall and an ice-cold 15% (3-20) from three-point range. Tech was out rebounded 37-22 and lost the turnover battle 14-9. In fact, the Hokies only won 2 of 16 major statistical categories: Fast-break Points (4-0) and Points off the Bench (19-16).
Seth Allen led the Hokies with 14 points but shot just 5-14 from the field and turned it over a team-high 3 times. Zach LeDay added 12 points and 6 rebounds, while Chris Clarke led the Hokies with 7 rebounds.
Ahmed Hill (2 points), Clarke (5 points), Justin Robinson (5 points) and Justin Bibbs (5 points) scored just 17 points among the four of them, while shooting a combined 5-17.
The Cavaliers opened up a 10-0 lead on the cold-shooting Hokies in the early going before Bibbs broke the drought with a 4-point play (three-pointer and a foul). That started a 10-5 Tech run that closed it to 15-10 with 10:56 to go after a drive and a free throw by Clarke.
Virginia scored the next 7 points to go up 22-10. For the rest of the half, the Hokies struggled to get any traction, and Virginia widened the lead to 35-21 at half time.
Virginia Tech battled the pack line defense unsuccessfully, turning it over 7 times and getting off just 18 shots in the first 20 minutes. The Hokies were frigid from the field in the half, making just 5 of those 18 shots (27.8%), including just 2-12 (16.7%) from three-point range.
Fortunately for the Hokies, the Cavaliers weren’t particularly hot, either, shooting just 3-12 from the outside and 13-29 overall. Virginia outrebounded the Hokies 20-8 in the first half, piling up almost as many offensive boards (7) as the Hokies had total rebounds.
Virginia Tech’s 21 first-half points were a new low for a half during the 2016-17 season. The Hokies’ previous low-scoring half was 23 points in the first half against Nebraska back on Nov. 27th in Tech’s 66-53 win over the Huskers.
The second half provided little relief for the Hokies, as Virginia kept Virginia Tech at bay throughout the last 20 minutes. The Cavaliers stretched the lead out to 50-31 before a Hokies’ run cut it to 52-41 with 8:44 remaining, but Virginia responded with a 9-0 run to push the lead back out to 20 points, and the Cavaliers coasted from there. Virginia’s largest lead was 26 points (71-45) with 1:21 to go.
The Hokies get a week off before returning to action at Miami next Wednesday, February 8th at 9 PM on RSN. Check your local listings.
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Hey, head bookkeeper, good to see you putting pen to paper. I’ve always enjoyed your take.
This was easy. I spit out a lot of depressing stats, and pushed “Publish.”
I also had to stop because I was running out of synonyms for “cold.”
UVA basketball, while successful, is about as entertaining as a root canal.
Not being able to rebound the ball will kill you. Our boys are under-manned! NIT will be an accomplishment
Aim higher. They could lose the rest of the games and still make the NIT.
Still a lot of ball to be played and they won’t all be as uncomfortable as the hoos in the john.