Hokies lose a close one to UNC

Virginia Tech lost a close game to #19 North Carolina on Saturday, falling 60-56 in Cassell Coliseum.  The Hokies dropped to 9-19 overall and 2-14 in the ACC, while the Tar Heels improved to 22-7 overall and 12-4 in league play.

Tech had the ball down 58-54 with 20 seconds left.  James Johnson called a timeout, and the ball was inbounded to Jarell Eddie in front of the Tech bench.  Eddie put up a three-pointer from at least 25 feet away from the basket immediately after catching the pass.  It wasn’t a good shot attempt at all, and North Carolina rebounded and went on to win the game 60-56.

On the whole, Eddie had a very good Senior Day.  He scored 18 points and grabbled seven rebounds while going 6-of-13 from the field.  Unfortunatley, that bad decision in the final 20 seconds tainted what was an otherwise good performance.  Fellow senior Cadarian Raines was unable to play because of a high ankle sprain.  Freshman guard Ben Emelogo and sophomore guard Adam Smith also missed the game with injuries.

North Carolina is a poor outside shooting team, and went just 5-of-17 from three-point range against the Hokies.  However, they did attack Tech’s 2-3 zone with good ball movement and spacing.  They got easy looks off defensive lapses by Joey van Zegeren on their first two possessions, and van Zegeren was immediately pulled and played just 19 minutes.  He scored just two points and had no rebounds, and didn’t appear to be as mentally into the game as he has been recently.

Tech did hold a 16-11 lead in the first half, but the Tar Heels went on a run to take a 28-21 lead into the intermission.  Tech battled back to tie the game once in the second half, though UNC managed to stay in control.  James Michael McAdoo dropped in 15 points to lead the Tar Heel attack.

Freshman point guard Devin Wilson added 13 points and seven assists for Virginia Tech, though he was only 3-of-13 from the field.

The Hokies return to action on Tuesday night when they take on Maryland in College Park.  Tipoff is scheduled for 8pm, and the game will be televised by The ACC Network.

Box Score (HokieSports.com)

6 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. They LOST…Again….This program is in the dump!! Time to clean house. The current set of kids are good…not great…nobody seems to be NBA material. We need to recruit better and that means a new coach who can teach a system and sell it.

  2. They competition was tough. If the team will develop more, they have to potential to be a champion.

  3. I agree that they were competitive; and realistically at this point that is really all you can expect from this team. Granted this team makes mistakes, but their strong point is they don’t quit. The silver lining of this team is several young players got a heap of experience this year. With the addition of the injured players being back and the new recruits coming in, they should be competitive in the ACC next year, but how that translates to their position in the ACC is obviously unknown; my guess is certainly in the bottom half, but not last. At this point, I’ve changed my position on JJ; I’d give him another year.

  4. Had Jarrell Eddie made that shot from 25 plus, we still would have lost the game, and we would still be talking about what a great shot it was from waay outside.

  5. With key personnel absent, they were still competitive. At this point that is enough for me. I feel for the guys. They must feel that everything is stacked against them.

  6. Both JV and TT show enormous potential but desparately need help from a “post position guru” this off season. If they can develop the team’s future good be bright.

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