Virginia Tech lost a tough 102-95 contest to Miami in triple overtime on Wednesday night in Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies dropped to 15-11 overall and 6-9 in the ACC with the loss, while the Hurricanes improved to 14-12 and 6-10. The ‘Canes won their third consecutive game after being ravaged by injuries earlier in the season.
The lead changed hands eight times during the course of the game, and there were 11 ties. The Hokies trailed by as many as 12 points in the first half and also by as many as 12 in the second half, but they rallied in the second half and had a chance to win. In fact, Tech held a lead late in regulation, overtime and the second overtime, but couldn’t manage to close out the game.
“They give us everything in their tank every time they go on the floor, we just didn’t have that pop in the first half,” Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young said. “Miami is good, they are playing good basketball, it’s hard to keep them out of the lane. Rodney Miller is a load in there and Keith Stone had a very nice game for them. We popped back in the second half to compete and I thought we were very good in a number of areas. I can’t ask anymore, I just hate to lose it.”
In regulation, the Hokies led 77-74 before Kameron McGusty hit a layup with 13 seconds left. Redshirt freshman Tyrece Radford, who was spectacular otherwise, fouled him on the play. McGusty hit the free throw to tie the game, and Radford’s last second shot attempt was blocked.
In the first overtime, the Hokies jumped out to an 84-80 lead before freshman guard Isaiah Wong made two late shots to force a second overtime. The first came with 51 seconds remaining, and the second came with just six seconds left on the clock. A last second shot attempt by Jalen Cone was no good, and the teams went to a second overtime.
A shot by Radford tied the game at 88 with 1:20 to play, and then Wabissa Bede gave the Hokies the lead 90-88 on a runner with just 32 seconds to play. However, it was Wong again with a jumper in the paint to tie the game with 16 seconds left, and a jumper from Radford to win the game was no good in the final seconds. The Hokies couldn’t manage to get a lead in the third overtime, and Miami gradually pulled away to win the game.
Wong, who has been dominant for the Hurricanes in recent weeks, had 27 points and 12 rebounds. Chris Lykes, Miami’s leading scorer who has missed much of this season with an injury, had 23. Kameron McGusty, the ‘Canes third-leading scorer who has also missed a lot of time, had 21.
“They have guys from the one to the five that can score the ball in a one-versus-one situation,” freshman guard Jalen Cone said. “[They have] guys that can shoot the ball and get to the hoop at will. And a guy like Chris Lykes, who is one of the toughest guys I’ve had to guard. We’re not going to harp on it — we’ll just get back to work. We came off a five-game losing streak and take the positives and move on.”
Radford and Landers Nolley both had double-doubles, with Radford finishing with 26 points and 10 rebounds. He also had three steals, two assists and a block. His night was highlighted by a floater from behind the basket that he managed to get to go in, though the shot should not have counted by NCAA rules (all three officials apparently forgot about that rule).
Nolley was 9-of-10 from the free throw line and finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, but he suffered another bad shooting night, going just 4-of-21 from the field and 1-of-8 from three-point range. Cone had 20 points in 36 minutes.
The Hokies wasted a masterful performance from the free throw line, going 24-of-28 as a team for 85.7%. However, it was wasted in part because of Miami’s own free throw performance. The ‘Canes were 29-of-32 (90.6%) from the charity stripe, and amazingly did not miss a free throw until the third overtime period.
Virginia Tech will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Durham to take on the Duke Blue Devils. Tipoff is scheduled for 8pm, and the game will be televised by ESPN2.
Box Score
Selected Notes From Virginia Tech
- This triple-overtime loss marks the first time since 1983 that Tech has gone into a third overtime. Tech lost to West Virginia 90-86.
- This is the first triple-overtime game in the ACC since Wake Forest and North Carolina in 2003.
- Tyrece Radford and Landers Nolley’s double-doubles marked the first time two Tech players have notched double-doubles in the same game since Kerry Blackshear and Chris Clarke against The Citadel in 2017.
- Radford scored a career-high 26 points and registered his third double-double of the season with 10 rebounds.
- John Ojiako notched a career-high five blocks and also added six boards.
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Probably the single most important play of the game, the “and-1” at the end of regulation, definitely did not happen with 13 seconds left. The foul would have been a lot more reasonable if there was that much time left. I think there were only 4 or 5 seconds left.. Not to nit pick but I think that is a very important detail in the result of the game.
Totally Agree – I could not see any contact on that foul – and how about the charge right before half where MY got T’d up – that was a six point swing
The charge was a horrible call. They called it correctly later in the game….unfortunately it was on Horne trying to draw the charge.
On Radford at the end, I am pretty sure it looked like he took a half-hearted smack at the ball and ended up smacking his arm as he went to shoot. Just poor awareness. Either let him have the shot, or foul him hard…he did neither. Hard to blame the kid. It’s habit. You see the ball there, so you just smack at it, unfortunately he missed the ball and smacked his arm instead.
The two “And 1” layups late in the game killed us. That’s inexperience. Give them the layup or foul so hard that they can’t get off a shot. Absolutely cannot allow them to get the layup AND a foul shot in those situations. Frustrations of a young team. Still, proud of the way they fought. Radford is emerging as a dude who can dribble drive and dunk. That’s going to be a dangerous weapon in the future as he becomes stronger. Another terrible shooting night for Nolley. These 4-21 FG (1-8 3pt) shooting efforts are becoming the norm. I appreciate the increased rebounding but the team as a whole needs to work to find the “hot hand” at end of games. Too many people have the green light to shoot.
Radford is really QUICK!
RADFORD………………….what a player!!!!! 200% effort from coast to coast!!!!
PJ’s stat line is horrendous.. totally agree. Why is he jacking up 3’s early in shot clock at critical juncture of game?
He played poorly and should have never taken those 3’s so early
One of the most frustrating losses I can remember. We played SO hard but just couldn’t make one more shot or grab one more long rebound. ALL the key bounces Miami needed to survive they got during the last minutes of regulation, 1&2 OTs. The Cone FT miss the Radford foul, the in & out Nolley short leaner then the multiple long offensive rebounds for Miami that seemed to bounce right to a Miami player
Im not sure why pj horne is taking 3s late in the game.
I’m not sure why Nolley is allowed to take 21 shots when he shot less than 20 %. There were multiple times where I could tell he was going to take a shot no matter what defense or how many players were covering him. He needs to get a reality check that outside of a random game here or there, he isn’t shooting very well and shouldn’t just keep firing it up.
What did it take for Nolley to NOT transfer? A blank check to shoot whenever he likes. A small price to pay.
, and it continues , ,
Easy to say but we NEED his scoring
Let anyone else take 10 of his 21 shots last night and we win. Scoring 15 pts is easy when you take that many shots.
Right, Nolley seems beyond a slump. Too big of a sample of poor shooting at this point. His 2 and 3 shooting % in ACC play excluding Clemson is 37/24. And he is taking twice as many shots as anyone else. At least when he drives he can draw some fouls and score that way. So,
Limit his 3s. He can fix his shooting in the off-season.
We need his scoring to be at greater than a 20% rate. He’s gotten into a TERRIBLE rut shooting wise and it’s killing us. If he just improved his percentage to somewhere close to 40% we would have won 3 or 4 more games this year, all other things being equal. It’s good to see him improve in other areas like rebounding, etc. but we need someone more dependable to score at a reasonable clip. If he doesn’t get there soon he should be restricted in the number and type of shots he’s allowed to take.
And Nolley is thinking of going pro after this season?!? Crazy….
His dad is
Won’t happen. He tries to go pro and he might get a job in a European league.
Compare him to NAW. Even NAW had to wait until after his sophomore year and I think he’s more skilled/prepared than Nolley. Nolley is going to be a great player but he needs to realize he’s just one out of five.
Maybe that pressure is causing a little harm???
It seems to correlate well with dad’s pronouncements. Nolley even seems like the kind of guy who likes school, or at least gets it, not one of those guys who have no interest.
Nolley is slow of foot to the basket. He gets tied up under the basket and it seems like he panics and loses control of his feet and the ball. He doesn’t present being aggressive to the basket. He’s 6’7” with a decent shot from the perimeter when he’s open. He’s also challenged defensively. As a team we let the other team penetrate to the basket way to much. We are a work in progress and CMY needs sometime to get his type of players at VT. We all know we are undersized and young and our 2 juniors should be coming off the bench and be roll players, but that’s not possible this year. We are what we are, we play hard and make freshmen mistakes. We have achieved more this season than I thought we would! I’m proud of this team.
Go Hokies!
You mean like the two he nailed to clinch the Pitt game ??
….and the Fates decree that we must next face a Duke team coming off a loss
Tyrece is becoming a beast.
Unleash the beast.
He and Cone are my favorite players. Energy.