Virginia Tech was defeated by Boston College 66-59 in Cassell Coliseum on Monday night, dropping their record to 10-20 overall and 2-15 in the ACC. The Eagles improved to 11-18 overall, and 3-14 in conference play.
If I had told you that Boston College would make only three field goals over the last 19 minutes of the game, the Hokies would outrebound the Eagles by two, Tech would only commit nine turnovers and Adam Smith would score 22 points, what would your game prediction have been? I would have picked a win without even thinking about it, and you probably would have, too. However, that isn’t what happened.
This was a tale of two games. The Hokies played poorly for the first 23 minutes before finally waking up at approximately the 17 minute mark, but it wasn’t enough. A quick glance at the box score says a lot. Here are some notes that sum up the game:
1: BC made 17 field goals in the first half. They made just five field goals in the second half, and only three field goals over the final 19 minutes of the game. At the 19 minute mark of the second half, they led 46-28, Buzz Williams cleared his bench to get some energy, and the Hokies fell behind 52-30 before rallying to cut the lead to six points. Unfortunately, Tech couldn’t overcome a poor defensive first half that saw BC shoot 63% from the field.
2: The fact that the Eagles only made five field goals in the second half and still shot 52.4% for the game shows exactly how bad Tech’s defense was in the first half.
3: Adam Smith scored 22 points, but no other Hokie scored more than eight.
4: Tech’s two scholarship post players, Satchel Pierce and Shane Henry, combined for two rebounds in 17 minutes. Despite that, the Hokies outrebounded BC 29-27. It was the second straight game Tech has outrebounded an ACC opponent after failing to do so in their first 15 league games. However, it wasn’t enough to get the win.
5: Dimitri Batten, a Newport News native who transferred from ODU to Boston College, had a career-high 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting. Coming into the game, he was averaging 6.7 points while shooting 43% from the field and 32.3% from three-point range.
BC had the experience advantage. The Eagles started two grad students, a senior and two other juniors, and they also bring a senior off the bench. However, the Hokies had the overall talent advantage, which showed once they began to play with energy. Nevertheless, BC’s 23 minutes of good basketball was better than Tech’s 17.
“No energy, no fight, non-competitive,” Buzz Williams said of his team following the game.
Despite the poor start, the Hokies cut the lead to 60-54 on an Adam Smith three-pointer with 2:13 remaining. Unfortunately, that was as close as they got.
Jalen Hudson, who scored 23 points against Duke and then went scoreless against UVA, had one point and was 0-of-4 from the field. Justin Bibbs had five points and was 2-of-6 shooting.
Virginia Tech returns to action this Saturday at home for their final regular season game of the year against Miami. Tipoff is scheduled for noon, and the game will be televised by RSN. Check your local listings.
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The “Nightmare” is almost over. I’ll pass on the Kool Aid thank you.
Disappointing. But there was bound to be some letdown in a half-empty (at best) Cassell after taking Dook to the wire and losing yet again. These are excuses, yes, but the kids aren’t robots.
This year isn’t any *worse* than last year, and I (at least) have more hope for the future with Buzz than before he came. So that’s something.
So you think VT is more talented than BC. Who do we have that’s better than Hanlan? Their point guard or ours? Their center or ours? We couldn’t man up on them. If we did they drove. If we didn’t they made uncontested 3 pointers. And with a 22 pt lead there’s bound to be some letup.
We ran into a team that runs the same scheme we do and last night did it better. Many times these games boil down to who’s playing better and if we are to win we will have to play significantly better than the other team.
I turned the game off at halftime in the interest of getting some sleep. It was incredibly disappointing to see the effort level, focus and fight displayed over the first 20 minutes. In some cases it almost looked like VT was trying to give the game away (a few of Wilson’s TO’s and Beyer’s missed layup were some examples) and gave the team a very bad news bearish quality.
Win or lose I had expected the team to come out and play with energy and effort since that has been pretty consistent over the last week or two. Hopefully they can get things moving back in the right direction for the finale against Miami and their ACC tourney game.
Agreed. After the Duke game, I was really disappointed to see such a lack of focus and intensity. That first half was as bad a defensive half as we’ve gad all season. I give BC credit for shooting the ball extremely well, but most of their baskets came off of wide open looks.
Let’s just hope that can rebound against Miami at home on Saturday. We all know that they’re capable of playing much better than they did last night.
Let’s see, we are at home playing the worst team (except guess who) in the ACC with a chance to avoid another last-place finish. And we managed to play so miserably that even Bill Roth and Mike Burnop had a hard time announcing. Thanks again to Tom Gabbard and Bill Weaver for another reminder of just how an administration can literally destroy a sport for years and years. You have to admire BC for the way they responded to their last-place challenge; It’s a shame we don’t have their grit and determination to avoid the cellar. I expect a 20 point loss to Miami on Saturday – we have no confidence. Just look at Pierce and Henry. And Justin Bibbs has lost his focus.
I don’t think that you can question to grit of the team from this game. UVa started very lethargically last night also. But they are a much better team so they won. Unfortunately, due to our lack of experience and talent, we can’t afford to take any time off.
If I were the coach of any opposing team that plays VT, I would motivate my players by telling them that at least one of you will have a career high in one category or another in the upcoming game. Oh? They already do…
I guess Buzz is positioning the Hokies for a surprise ACC tournament run! Since Syracuse will not play in the tournament, does that mean the Hokies will not finish last?
No, there isn’t really a concept of last in this tournament since it is sudden-death for any team that loses. However, we will more than likely be the lowest-seeded team to lose. Also, Syracuse is witheld from the tournament, so they aren’t automatically occupying the 15th spot. The tourney is just for 14 teams.