Hokies rally to beat WVU

Virginia Tech overcame a 29-12 deficit to defeat West Virginia 87-82 in Cassell Coliseum on Tuesday.  Both teams are now 1-1 on the season.  It was an important win for the Hokies, who lost to USC Upstate on Saturday.

“We didn’t dwell on Saturday’s game,” r-sophomore guard Adam Smith said.  “We just looked forward.  We practiced on Sunday, we watched film…we didn’t have our heads down.”

Smith said the coaching staff did a good job of keeping the team focused despite the early deficit.

“We went to the huddle, we were a little rattled, we’re a young team.  But the coaches were calm, and they kept us all level headed.”

Smith struggled in his first game as a Hokie on Saturday, but he dropped 17 points on WVU on 7-of-12 shooting.

However, the biggest contributors were the freshmen.  Ben Emelogu scored 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including a 3-of-6 mark from three-point range.  He also pulled down six rebounds and blocked three shots.

Freshman point guard Devin Wilson also did a good job for the Hokies.  He finished with 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.  Emelogu and Wilson combined to go 15-of-16 from the free throw line.

Freshman forward Trevor Thompson made his college debut against the Mountaineers.  He finished with seven points, five rebounds and three blocks in 17 minutes of action.  Cadarian Raines blocked five shots, and overall the Hokies swatted 13 WVU shot attempts on Tuesday afternoon.

Despite trailing 29-12, the Hokies put on a furious rally and actually took a 55-45 lead with 14:33 left in the game.  That’s a 43-16 run in favor of the good guys.  Ben Emelogu hit a buzzer beating three-pointer at halftime, and Devin Wilson made two clutch free throws with five seconds left.  The Hokie freshmen had ice water in their veins on Tuesday.

Virginia Tech will return to action on Friday night when they host Western Carolina.  Tip-off is scheduled for 7pm, and the game can be seen online on ESPN3.

Box Score (HokieSports.com)

17 Responses You are logged in as Test

  1. Great effort by our young team. Very proud of them. The win was something they should be able to build on. Great win over wvu.

  2. Impressive young talent. Hope this is an early indicator of Coach JJ’s recruiting skills. Very nice national TV debut. The Tech defense, however, needs to be much tougher and tenacious. WVU’s defense nearly brought them back into the game. All in all, extremely promising.

    1. Stock…you can see the Carolina blue behind the visitors bench and based on tweets today, nowhere near that crowd level for a 1pm Tuesday tip

  3. Very encouraging that 3 guys new to the program carry the team. I appreciate their contributions, but it makes one think: CJ and Marquis who? And could it be that Eddy could become a liability vs an asset?

  4. I gotta say, these new guys are players. Emelogu looks very seasoned. I was also impressed with Wilson and Smith. I expect Smith and Emelogu both to really light it up.

    JJ seems to be going in the right direction.

  5. Some really silly TO’s,though especially by Smith against the WV pressure with a few minutes left.

    Also, J.Eddie hit a really nice jumper to put Tech back in front late.

    Very composed. But, silly mistakes are hopefully going to be less as they progress.

  6. I don’t remember a first game impact from freshmen quite like this except, oh yeah, it wasn’t the first game…..nevertheless, impressive comeback

  7. As I watched this game, I was thinking there are a lot of new guys on the floor, and they look like players. This is just about totally Coach JJ’s team–hardly any residue of Seth’s rein, Coach JJ even recruited some of the older players for Seth. A nice win, especially for the young players to overcome the adversity of a couple of West Virginia runs. But the best thing was beating WVU Coach Bob Huggins or whatever his jerk-face name is. That’s the cherry on top.

  8. I laughed a little…

    “It was an important win for the Hokies, who lost to USC Update on Saturday.”

    Emelogu is gonna be a beast and it might not take long.

  9. Definitely wish I had skipped work for this one. Really nice win, even more so because I work with several Eer fans. Hope it builds some confidence for the rest of the season. I still have very modest expectations, but much like the offense on the football team I will hope to see progress as the season goes along.

    1. It was definitely worth taking a day off! I’m very impressed by our effort today. The Hokie Nation needs to get behind this young team; they deserve our support.

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