No. 21 Virginia Tech Basketball Loses First ACC Game At Boston College

Virginia Tech had a rough outing in Chestnut Hill on Wednesday vs. Boston College. (Virginia Tech sports photography)

For the fourth straight meeting, No. 21 Virginia Tech was bested by Boston College on Wednesday night in Chestnut Hill, losing 70-65 in overtime.

The Hokies (11-2, 1-1 ACC), seeking a 2-0 start in the ACC for just the sixth time in 19 seasons, were lackadaisical and lifeless in the practically empty Conte Forum. Though they led for the entire first half, the Eagles (7-6, 1-1 ACC) stormed back with a 7-0 run with 13 minutes remaining in regulation. From there, they kept Tech at bay.

With 4:19 left in regulation, BC led VT by nine, 57-48. But the Hokies ripped off an 11-0 run to retake the lead with 49 seconds to play. Darius Maddox, Justyn Mutts, Sean Pedulla and Grant Basile all contributed to the scoring run. However, Boston College trailed by two, 59-57, with under a minute to go, and Makai Ashton-Langford hit a layup to send the game to overtime.

From there, it was all Eagles. They outscored Tech 11-6 in the overtime period while the Hokies were 3-of-10 in the final five minutes. There were chances to get stops but BC got an offensive rebound from Devin McGlockton to reset the shot clock with 53 seconds to play. 17 seconds later, Ashton-Langford drained a 3-pointer from the logo to essentially seal the game.

Surprisingly, Virginia Tech marginally shot better than Boston College, making 40.9% vs. 40.3%. Tech was better on the glass, too, grabbing 45 rebounds (16 offensive) to 40 (17). But despite entering the game ranked fourth in D-I in turnover percentage, Mike Young & Co. had their most turnovers of the season with 15. The previous high was 14 vs. Minnesota.

Mutts had five of those while Pedulla had four, both of which tied the respective player’s season-high. The Hokies didn’t take care of the ball at all and ball movement was lacking; they finished with 12 assists.

On top of that, they had just one point off the bench – a free throw from Mylyjael Poteat. It’s the fewest in a game this season, surpassing five against College of Charleston.

Pedulla and Mutts scored 18 points each while Maddox and Mutts each grabbed eight rebounds. In all, four Hokies scored in double figures with Basile (13) and Maddox (10).

Hunter Cattoor, who had five and five, was injured in the second half when he fell awkwardly on his left forearm. He did not return to the game. On the Virginia Tech Sports Network, Young said Cattoor will be evaluated before he flies to his hometown of Orlando for Christmas break.

Ashton-Langford had a game-high 21 points (8-of-15) and finished with seven rebounds. McGlockton had 18 points and seven boards, too. BC point guard Jaeden Zackery had six points, five rebounds, five assists and no turnovers.

Wake Forest is up next for Virginia Tech on New Year’s Eve (12 p.m. ET, RSN). The Demon Deacons are no pushover, however, after beating Duke on Tuesday night. 

Box Score: Link 

25 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Pedula is a great player, but tried to do too much himself. Notoriety maybe going to his head. No need to be the hero, run the offense. Young will coach him up.

  2. Worst Tech game in a long time. No energy. Uncharacteristically sloppy. BC is not a good team. Very disappointing for a MY team..

  3. I had a conflict and only saw the OT. Was not impressed. I understand that it’s difficult to bring your “A” game every time out over a 30-game season. But for goodness’ sake, you’d think that our lack of success vs BC would be incentive enough.

    1. Be thankful you didn’t see the whole thing. The whole team was just “off”. It’s like everybody picked the same night to have a bad game. Mutts and Pedulla made a bunch of silly turnovers that they usually don’t make. But in any 30+ game season, there are always a few turds in the punch bowl. This was definitely one of them. Losing a conference game on the road in an empty arena right before Christmas break isn’t the end of the world.

  4. It was reported after the game Coach Young said they would check Cattoor’s arm before they left last night. Sounds like he may have a broken arm. On that play the BC player bent his knees was very low and move under Cattoor when he tried to block him. There was no way he did not under cut him IMHO. That play could cost VT a special season. What I saw especially in the second half last night was more a mugging than BB.

  5. Lines like “…were lackadaisical and lifeless in the practically empty Conte Forum. Though they led for the entire first half,…” and “…marginally shot better than…”

    These lines show just how good the VT team is. They can show up lackadaisical, and play like it, and still be in the game at the end of regulation – tied. If only they would take each opponent and each game seriously…who knows?

    1. Unfortunately that sets a bad mind set to think you can play that way. Also note it was only because it was a bad team, likely anyone one else and they lose by double digits. They still don’t have any killer instinct to put away inferior teams and we will continue to incur “bad” losses this way.

      1. Agree that it’s no way to play a game; no matter who or where you’re playing. They really looked lost and sleepy and every other bad thing, at times.

    1. Neither one of our losses this year will be considered a “bad loss”. Charleston is a good team and losing an ACC game on the road is no great sin.

  6. Seemed to be little to no coaching last night, almost like coach was trying to teach the guys a lesson mid-game by just letting them get beat up and continually throw the ball away without not stopping it. My only gripe with MY he never calls timeout when he should. It’s great when the shots are falling to just let your guys follow their gut but when a team has you completely out of sorts like BC did I wish coach would say more and set up plays. The worst example was we stormed back with an 11-0 run, had to be exhausted and frantic, we get the ball with 30 seconds and final possession with a chance to win and MY doesn’t use his final timeout to call a play??

  7. WTH is it with BC? We looked like death warmed over. Every time I set aside some time to watch what should be a good win, we choke big time. Turn overs out the whazoo. Can’t win if you keep giving away the ball.

  8. Ultimately we’ll only go as far as our bench takes us. Both losses have come when our bench failed to produce. Hopefully Rice can spell Pedulla, while scoring some. Giving our bench life and a more meaningful role in our team’s performance.

  9. It would be nice just once for VT to go to that hellhole & play like they’ve seen a basketball before. (Same goes for football team.) Quad 4 loss is going to look really attractive at selection committee time.

  10. Unless Basile decides to battle inside and play defense our team will struggle. Every team from here on out will watch this game film and see the template to beat us especially if we get dominated on the boards and no movement like last night

    1. Article said we out rebounded BC

      Your premise of being dominated on the boards is not supported by the facts

      Turnovers and 1 point off the bench were the killers

  11. Hokies really have a difficult time with this type of physical play. Swallowed no I think they left them in the locker room. I wandered when they would put on pads and helmets.

  12. I am really positive on MY and this team. I do question our end of half and end of game possessions. We did not even run a play at the end of second half- unless dribbling for 20 seconds and an off balance fall away 3 was our play. We did that earlier this year. That is the NBA plan. I think MY needs to set the O and run our O instead of waiting for one miraculous shot. My wife – HokieTonya even said why did we do that? And her attention to the game is questionable at best.

  13. BC got 7 extra shot attempts (6 FG and 3 FTs) because of TOs and Off Reb and that was the difference. Our shooting was rough but Maddox was by far the worst in this going 4-15. And our bench went 0-4. The rest of the team shot a respectable 49%. I hope Maddox finds his stroke. He is shooting 39% on the season, only ahead of Collins among our regular 8 players.

    1. Maddox played harder than most others last night (see 8 rebounds) and many of his 11 missed shots were nsidenwhike he was getting beat up

  14. Referees really swallowed their whistle during this game. Looked more like football. Tech didn’t respond well to the physicality of the game, turning it over too many times.

    1. In an ideal world, refs enforce the rules as written, consistently. They should never play a part in determining the outcome of a game.

      Reality, unfortunately, is not quite so pure.

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