Virginia Tech Rebounds By Crushing Washington 103-79

Justin Bibbs led the Hokies over the Washington Huskies. (Photo by Ivan Morozov)

Virginia Tech bounced back from the upset against Saint Louis by blowing out Washington 103-79 on Friday evening in Madison Square Garden.  The Hokies moved to 3-1 on the season, while the Huskies dropped to 2-2.

Tech has now scored over 100 points in three of their first four games this season.  Justin Robinson missed nearly the entire first half of Thursday’s game against Saint Louis, and the offense never got on track.  Friday night was different, as the Hokies carved up the Washington 2-3 zone from start to finish, jumping out to a massive 59-28 halftime lead.

Justin Bibbs played in his second game of the season, and he led the Hokies in scoring with 30 points, just two points below his career high, in 34 minutes.  He was 10-of-15 from the field, including 4-of-6 from three-point range.  Ahmed Hill added 23 points, and he was 7-of-8 from the field.  Hill made all six of his three-point attempts, with nearly all of them coming from beyond NBA range.

Freshman wing Nickeil Alexander-Walker rebounded from a poor game on Thursday night to score 20 points against the Huskies.  He was 5-of-10 from the field, 4-of-7 from three-point range, and he made all six of his free throw attempts.  Junior point guard Justin Robinson added 11 points, five assists and four steals.

Obviously the Hokies had a hot night shooting.  As a team, they were 30-of-50 (60%) from the field and 15-of-22 (68.2%) from the outside.  They were also 28-of-36 (77.8%) from the free throw line.  The first half was especially good, with the Hokies nailing 11-of-14 (78.6%) shots from three-point range.  Tech dished out 23 assists as a team.

It was a dominant offensive performance despite Buzz Williams electing to not use starting center Kerry Blackshear very much.  Blackshear started the game, but only played 10 minutes.  He did not score.  Freshman PJ Horne played seven minutes at center, while former walk-on Nick Fullard got four minutes.  In general, Williams decided to go with a very small lineup with Chris Clarke getting the most minutes guarding Washington’s centers.

As you might expect with such a small lineup, Tech allowed 16 offensive rebounds, though the Huskies only managed to convert them into 10 second chance points.  Still, the Hokies were able to win the overall rebounding battle 34-33 despite playing with such a small team.

As good as the performance was, there is still plenty of room for improvement.  Somehow Tech managed to score 103 points despite committing a whopping 22 turnovers.  They were sloppy with the ball, and at times the Washington 2-3 defense caused some issues.  Still, the team flashed serious potential offensively.  If they could have cut their turnovers in half, their margin of victory could have been even more impressive.

Virginia Tech returns to action next Tuesday when they host Houston Baptist in Cassell Coliseum.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7pm, and the game can be seen online on ACC Network Extra.

— hokiesports.com box score–

12 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Blackshear’s left ankle is definitely an issue. He was definitely favoring it in the St.Louis game and it is heavily taped and his left calf is noticeably smaller than his right. Not sure if the surgery fixed his issues with it and it definitely seems to affect his ability to move to his left!

  2. I was glad to see the team play with more fire. They will need to do that each game in their ACC schedule. I guess the mystic of Madison Square Garden wore off after they got pushed around by St. Louis. Great rebound now keep it up. Go Hokies!

    1. The “mystic” of Madison Square Garden is Marilyn Monroe breathlessly singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to JFK in that almost-falling-out-of dress! That will never wear off! (I think you meant “mystique”).

      1. And if you’re old enough to remember that breathless moment you’re right up there with Methusaleh and me!

  3. Blackshear hurt hurt his ankle during the game. That is more likely the reason for his minutes, not deciding to go with a lineup. Though Blackshear has been soft in the middle regardless of the state of his ankle.

  4. I do not believe I have seen this much depth across the board, in a long…long time. The early playing time of so many players will benefit us as the season moves forward. It was a much better effort last night in this game over the previous game. The team looked “fresh” instead of having the jet-lag look. Let’s go Hokies!

    1. This may be the first time we’ve had a full complement of schollie players and I mean going back to Ricky Stokes, Greenberg got down to 8 (albeit w/the indestructible Dowdel) w/a couple defections and injuries seemingly every year, and even Buzz got down to 7 last year w/Clarke and Blackshear out. Buzz wisely got two LeDay and Allen (and don’t forget Henry) to fill in the empty Jr-Sr part of the pipeline.

      Now, his first players are finally filtering into that Jr-Sr role, Blackshear, Justin…so next year will be the first full complement of schollie players from recruits to experienced seniors, seriously, first time in forever.

  5. Wow, the game’s been over for several hours and not a single comment. Did everyone stop watching or paying attention after the first loss?

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