Virginia Tech Falls To Louisville 68-52

Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech hung with Louisville for a little over a half, but couldn’t hold on down the stretch. (Darby Taylor)

Virginia Tech fell to No.10/11 Louisville 68-52 on Sunday evening on the road.  The Hokies dropped to 15-14 overall and 6-12 in ACC play, while the Cardinals improved to 24-6 and 15-4.

This game was very competitive early, though neither team could get the lid off the basket in the opening minutes.  The Hokies did not score until the 14:44 mark of the first half on a Tyrece Radford bucket.  However, thanks to good defense and some missed shots by Louisville, the Radford basket actually tied the game.

The Hokies took their first lead 7-5 on a Jalen Cone three-pointer with 13:18 remaining in the half.  The Cardinals would only regain the lead once for the remainder of the half.  Overall the lead would change hands six times and the score was tied on 10 occasions, most of which occurred in the opening 20 minutes.  The game was tied at 27 at halftime.

It continued to be close in the opening stages of the second half.  A Radford jumper gave Virginia Tech a 29-27 lead, and then the Hokies led 32-29 after a Nahiem Alleyne three-pointer with 18:08 left.  Tech’s final lead of the game came at the 16:10 mark of the first half on another Radford bucket to make the score 34-32. 

On the ensuing possession, Louisville’s Dwayne Sutton hit a running layup and converted the free throw after a foul to put his team up 35-34.  That was the beginning of a 15-2 Louisville run that ended with a Jordan Nwora free throw to make the score 47-36 with 11:13 to play.  After that run, the Hokies never seriously threatened.

“I thought we were in good shape at the half,” Mike Young said. “We never turn the ball over, and then we had seven first-half turnovers and 16 for the game, which negates our play on the perimeter. They shoot the basketball so well, and we limited [them] to two made 3s at the half. But we shot ourselves in the foot and kick it seven times, which is just unnerving. We had some turnovers and bad shots to start the second half, and then you’re down 10 and you’ve got a problem.”

Nwora had 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Cardinals, and he also shut down Landers Nolley on the defensive end.  Nolley finished with just six points on 2-of-9 shooting, had five turnovers, and managed only one rebound.

Jalen Cone led the Hokies with 15 points.  He was 5-of-10 from three-point range.  Fellow freshman guard Nahiem Alleyne had 12 points and was 4-of-7 from the outside.  Those two players combined to go 9-of-17 from the outside, but the rest of the team went just 1-of-13.  That includes an 0-of-4 performance from Nolley and a 1-of-7 showing from PJ Horne.  Radford added eight points and nine rebounds for the Hokies.

Virginia Tech returns to action on Wednesday night when they host Clemson.  Tipoff is scheduled for 7pm, and the game will be televised by The ACC Network.

Box Score

19 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Whats up with landers i get hes forced to play out of position cause garbage bede but this is just ridiculous

  2. IMHO, this was a Louisville Senior Night love-fest with the refs. We got the benefit of only a couple of close or questionable calls. They got a good dozen. And it mattered. We could have had a shot at winning down the stretch if some of those calls had gone our way.

  3. holy moly since beating UNC on Jan 22, Hokies are 1-9! They really need a win against Clemson

  4. Hate to say it but CMY doesn’t come close to being a top tier coach. Great guy and a motivator, but his offense is questionable, and he hasn’t been able to stop the guys from taking bad shots. He has also been slow to make defensive adjustments to get teams out of their game or have good court awareness. Of course, it could be that the players have limitations.

    1. If you hate to say it, don’t say it because you are dead wrong. “…CMY doesn’t come close to being a top tier coach” ? He has the youngest and shortest team in the ACC and the talent level he was left with is at or near the bottom as well. In spite of that, he has kept the team competitive and fighting no matter what. This season is successful no matter what. Let’s see how the team looks over the next 3-4 years before we pronounce CMY as a lower-tier failure as a coach. I’m certainly going to wait and see.

      1. You missed the point! I was talking about coaching. Back to Miami home game. Which Miami player had the hot hand at the end of the game – Wong. Cone was guarding him, and Wong was eating him alive. After about 10 possessions, he put Radford on him and guess what, Wong gets slowed down. He should have changed up the defense sooner. Next to last play in regulation (13 seconds to go, VT up by 3). VT has one time out left and CMY doesn’t use it. If he had, he could have reminded his young team to guard the three, give them the two point shoot, or commit a none shooting foul. Instead Miami gets a layup and a foul to tie the game. On the inbounds, Cone doesn’t seem to realize there are 5 seconds on the clock, and wastes precious time which might have been the time needed to get a better last shot. You sure don’t see these types of mistakes from teams coached by top-tier coaches.

      2. If you are “certainly going to wait and see.” How can you proclaim BaldHokie “dead wrong”?

        I’m going to wait and see – Bald might be right, he might be wrong.

    2. I’ve been wondering when CMY would drop from “infallible” to “has a few questions”. Great job so far, great personality, but two themes persist – Late game losses, playing the wrong players at the wrong time. Not sure if he is top tier or not, but he certainly has not proved to be so far to date in my book – not disproved either. Hope he can sign great players – that might convince me.

  5. I do not believe the officials look at the 3 second lane. there were several rimes last night that the lane was violated last night which resulted in points for Louisville. Does the 3 second call still exist

    .

  6. Just win at least one more to finish .500

    I don’t think this crew deserves to have a “losing” season. They’ve done a lot of good things. So many close home Ls, yes we got the UNC one but also lost in OT or last possession vs Cuse, BC, Miami, UVA. Imagine winning 3/4!of those and we’d be 9-9 and 18-11!!!

  7. Nolley is the mystery player. Hot a as a firecracker the first of the season and cool as a cucumber the second half (so far). I do not see an NBA player at this point of his career and hope he returns next year mainly for his benefit. Needs improvement in a lot of areas of this game especially defense and ball handling. Please stop dribbling because he turns it over most of the time. Hopeful for the future with lots of good freshmen on the team. I love this team and the players and they have given it their all and the fans know this. Experience is the best teacher so we are going to be OK down the road.

  8. Nice to see the progress of Cone and Cattoor. Radford and Ajiako are great building blocks along with Alleyme. Nolley is still good, but in a terrible struggle for identity after being “the man” to begin the season. With the added depth of front line help next year from Aluma, and more pieces in recruiting, I can easily see a NCAA run in the coming years. CMY has done a great job for year one, exceeding my expectations, and we will give this season a thumbs up for the accomplishments already achieved. Playing even with a powerhouse program for a half, will lead to confidence in the future.

  9. I don’t like to whine about officiating and I would prefer to see replays rather than try to judge looking only at live action TV BUT it really looked like things did not even out tonight and we got the worst of it. No one can accuse this team of being inconsistent shooting the ball from the outside. We have been very consistent and lousy for many games now, excluding Cone and Alleyne. Cone even started off 1-6 and then made his last 4 shots. That’s what good shooters do. If they miss a few they bounce back. It surprises me that we can’t occasionally have a game where multiple players get hot and we win one that way. Really hoping that next year the 3-point shooting can be limited to good outside shooters, no one <30%. I realize we had to try the 3 game this year because we don't have inside scorers and it worked early in the year. I always think of a young team getting better as the season wears on but ….! I don't expect to win any more games this year which finishes us at 15-17 but I'll watch every grueling minute. Maybe we squeak out a tourney win if we draw Pitt or Wake. Yes, if you asked me at the beginning of the season how we would do this year, we have exceeded my expectations. But, this may be the most demoralizing way to have a .500 season. I would have much preferred to start a little slower and win a few more games at the end, see some improvement going into next season. But, we were close in many games and maybe some of those will go our way next year (although a few did for us earlier, like UNC). I see no upside for Bede, Horne and Wilkins so if we get better it will have to come from our 6 freshman, Kabongo and new recruits. Nolley is a complete mystery. Maybe he doesn't want to leave college yet and has subconsciously sabotaged his chances at the next level. He stands to come out with a much better financial outlook if he can have a productive sophomore year. His conference shooting stats should scare any pro scout. He may be the worst shooting "one of the leading scorers in the ACC" the conference has ever seen. Holy cow. Forgive the Debbie Downer post. Wa wa wa !!! I am enjoying watching many Hokie women's bball games on ACCN. Great season for them although I hated to see the tank against UVA. Potential awards for coach and freshman of the year.

  10. I am proud of my team and their performance tonight. Yes, they lost and there were some mistakes but they can hold their heads high. They were equal to a good team for the first half and a second half run did them in, along with some inexperienced mistakes. Louisville got away with a number of “flop” fouls that we need to learn to take on our side. I hate flops like Tyler Hansborough (UNC), but if the officials are going to keep calling it that way, we need to do to learn the technique. Also, Nolley needs to figure out his role. We have a lot to work on in the off season, but the future is bright. Need to beat Clemson and/or ND to have a winning season. Let’s win both !

      1. Really? Nolley is a turnover machine. Definitely not point guard material. Bede can get into the lane, while Nolley lowers his shoulder and gets a charge.

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