Virginia Tech Falls To Boston College 61-56

Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech did not have a good day in Boston. (Bryant Altizer)

Boston College tried to give the game to Virginia Tech, but the Hokies didn’t take it.  The Eagles knocked off Tech 61-56 in the Conte Forum on Saturday afternoon to move to 10-10 overall and 4-5 in the ACC.  Meanwhile, the Hokies dropped to 14-6 overall and 5-4 in the ACC after suffering their first bad loss of the season.

BC shot 11-of-27 (40.7%) from the free throw line, which is one of the worst marks you’ll ever see in a college basketball game.  Nevertheless, they pushed out their defense to the three-point line and made the Hokies’ ball handlers uncomfortable and the result was that Tech was never able to get going offensively.

The Hokies were 6-of-12 from three-point range in the first half and led 31-26 at halftime, but those clean looks were limited in the second half.  Tech was just 1-of-9 from the outside in the final 20 minutes, with the one make coming by Jalen Cone with under a minute to play.

Boston College came into Saturday’s game good in one aspect of the game.  The Eagles rank No. 29 nationally in opponents’ turnover percentage, and we noted in Friday’s preview that turnovers were something to keep an eye on, as the Hokies entered the game ranked No. 2 in the country in turnover percentage.  It was a battle BC won by forcing 14 Virginia Tech turnovers.

Landers Nolley, along with Tyrece Radford, did not start because they were late to the team bus on Saturday morning.  Still, Tech led 14-10 before those two players entered the game, and led by as many 10 points before the wheels fell off.  Nolley led the team with 15 points, but he was 0-of-3 from the outside and had four turnovers.  Nahiem Alleyne added 10 points for Tech, while Radford had seven points and nine rebounds.  Wabissa Bede had nine points, five rebounds and five assists.

Virginia Tech returns to action on Tuesday night when they face Miami on the road.  Tipoff is scheduled for 8pm, and the game will be televised by The ACC Network.

12 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Too many players standing around waiting on LN to take the shot. Gotta step it up when the other team figures out how to defense your guy.

  2. Cone didn’t get enough touches, especially the last 10 minutes while we crumbled. Since Olijako is not going to be giving us an inside presence this year, we need fearless Jalen, Alleyne and Nolley to keep slinging from 3. Win by it, lose by it, with our lack of size, it’s all we got. But with us 350th ranked out of 353 teams in experience, and concocted in a last minute scramble by a new coach with no time or players, I think we’re doing pretty damn good, and Mike Young has done an excellent job of making chicken salad out of chicken flemdawg. A guy may be a stud in bed but if he has a little penis he’ll never be a porn star, same with a team who’s biggest player out of the top nine is only 6’7”. You can only go so far.

  3. Not a good performance at the end of the game but every team has an off night. I agree with the majority of comments here this team has already exceeded expectations. Go Hokies beat Miami!

  4. Chris nailed it: BC did their damnedest to hand us this game, but we couldn’t hang on to the gift….or the ball. The kids seemed out of sync from the outset. Maybe the Nolley/Radford disciplinary issue threw everyone off, who knows? This was an altogether winnable game; one we needed.

    1. Agree. They played like freshman for once. Bad passes where you could see the defender leaning out to steal it, couldn’t catch a pass cleanly and no one to take it inside.

  5. They weren’t ready to play today. No cake games in the ACC. Good players everywhere.

    Nolley needs to play closer to the basket.

    Get back on the horse Tuesday!!

  6. Bede needed to let Jalen take the final shot. JBone had just stroked the team’s first 3 of the 2nd half on the previous possession. Ride the hot hand. Very winnable game slipped through our fingers.

  7. We didn’t seem to have an answer for their man-2-man defense. This puts a big dent in the NCAA hopes but NIT is still realistic and would exceed my expectations as well 134435Hokie. We did use Nolley more in the post which I liked. He was 7-14 from 2 and was only 0-3 from 3 which is preferable to his recent performances from 3. This was our first bad loss (Which is awesome for this team) but to me we underachieved for the 3rd game in a row and and we look vulnerable against anyone now. No easy ones from here out.

  8. We knew these kind of games were coming, 2nd half was awful. Hope there won’t be too many more. Still they’ve won more games already than I thought possible. It was nice to be in the top 5 of the acc if only for awhile.

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