Virginia Tech Falls to BYU 90-77

(Glen Pascual)

Virginia Tech fell to BYU 90-77 in the third-place game of the 2019 Maui Invitational on Wednesday night.  The Hokies dropped to 6-2 on the season with the loss, while the Cougars, who knocked off UCLA in their opening game before falling to Kansas, improved to 5-3.

It was a good offensive game for Tech, who shot 31-of-58 (53.4%) from the field and 11-of-22 (50%) from three-point range, committed just eight turnovers and were outrebounded by only one.  However, they struggled terribly on the defensive end of the court.  BYU shot 54.2% from the field and had numerous wide open shots from the outside.  The Cougars were 17-of-34 (50%) from the outside, and the 17 made three-pointers were a school record.

Redshirt freshman Landers Nolley led the Hokies with 22 points and seven rebounds.  He was 9-of-18 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range.  PJ Horne added 13 points, Nahiem Alleyne finished with 12, while Wabissa Bede had 11 points and seven assists.

Virginia Tech led 37-35 at halftime, and the game was extremely competitive well into the second half.  However, a big 17-3 run by BYU sealed the deal, and the Hokies’ poor play on the defense end cost them a chance to win.  They allowed 51 points in the second half.

The Hokies return to action on Friday, December 6 when they host Duke in Cassell Coliseum.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7pm, and the game will be televised by The ACC Network.

Virginia Tech Box Score

12 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. we field 5 guys who are practically the same size. basically, it’s a 5 guards lineup. rebounding was obviously and will continue to be a big problem.

  2. It’s time to start Ojiako and let him play significant minutes. He can block shots and provides a defensive presence in the middle. It’s much easier to guard the 3 point line if you know a big man in the middle has your back. Mike Young can make the move now or have our very undersized team get smacked around some more.

  3. Like Foster’s defense there’s not a quick fix for youth and inexperience. Both teams we lost to had maturity, experience and size. MY squad seems like a great group of kids and I look forward to supporting their development.

  4. Bede does a lot of things very well but his shooting is lacking and will continue to hurt us in close games unless he improves that aspect of his game.

  5. I knew this tourney would show us the good and the bad of the quality of the team. The good, damn can they drain 3’s. The bad, they are a bit short and going to get beat up inside. I also see that playing 3 games in a 50 hour period could be exhausting. Enjoy the trip back, rest up and look forward to seeing you take down Duke.

    GO HOKIES!!!

  6. These Maui Invitational Basketball Tournament games were key for Virginia Tech to play prior to our ACC schedule that begins against #1 Duke next Friday! The win against Michigan State gives us hope that more quality wins can come this season but only if they continue to improve in all aspects of the game. Which aspects need improvement: Poor shooting and missed foul shots versus Dayton and poor defense versus BYU.

    1. First off, we have already begun ACC play vs Clemson and second, the Duke team will not be #1 after a loss to SFA.

      That said, the defense is an issue. As predicted, these kids wouldn’t be somehow worn out and now uncapable of shooting 3’s (and “shots will be short because of tired legs”). I wish would would drop that annual pre-game excuse anytime we are in a preseason, ACC or post season tournament that requires multiple gms within a shorter period. Every gm in Maui yesterday had teams shooting great (especially ours, where both teams lit it up all over the place).

      The only concern that came with Maui was teams finally figured us out on defense in those last 2 gms, so I hope the blueprint doesn’t continue to be used.

      Inexcusably vs both Clemson and Mich St, the opposition chucked long shots vs our height challenged squad. In-turn. they played into our hands and gave us a chance. MSU figured it out with 5 mins left and made a great run down 10, but Nolley made incredible shots.

      BYU and Dayton both made more layups abd dunks than I have seen vs a VT team in a long time. Once the inside opened up for easy 2’s, we tried to pack down and we gave up uncontested 3’s. CMY is going to need to figure something out on the defensive end of the floor prior to ACC play. The same kids that were concern on whether they could play defense at this level have shown they can make 3’s (as can many kids in HS gyms and lower conference NCAA basketball), but being able too guard great (and I guess even good BYU players) takes high level players. Look, I know CMY got what he could get, and he had 4 players left over (2 that can play defense and 1 that is too small for his position) but he is going to have to go back and access how to account for some defensive liabilities he has to play. We do have a long time before we can tell anything about CMY as a coach on this level, but before we annoit him as an amazing coach, there was always one big concern about his resume— He can coach offense, ball control, he can pull off some upsets…but he has historically almost always had very poor defenses (minis one or two teams ever). This was Buzz’s biggest issue, and then he became a great defensive coach. Glad we won vs MSU, wish we could have showed up to make a stop or two the next 2 gms. As the yr goes on, I still see a 4 win ACC team, but can we show improvement throughout the yr (marking out the MSU gm and not expecting that every night)?

  7. I didn’t watch the game but it appears that Tech’s best chance to win games will be to keep the score under 70 points. They need to set the pace of the game. Tech just can’t run with the better experienced teams. I guess the only game where Tech would need to run and win would be vs. UVA?

    I-2 is what I expected from this tournament, I just didn’t see us upsetting Michigan State. I hope this team doesn’t lose its confidence and can create an identity. We have an angry Duke team coming to town.

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