Box Score

For the second year in a row, the Hokies suffered a heartbreaking loss to clemson in the final ACC regular season game. Last year, it cost Tech an ACC regular season title. This year, it may have taken an invite to the Big Dance away from the Hokies. The Hokies will be the #4 seed in the ACC Tournament while clemson is #3. Both have byes.

Last year it was K.C. Rivers runner in the final 20 seconds that put clemson up by one, the winning margin. This year, Deron Washington tapped in an A.D. Vassallo miss with 9 seconds left to put the Hokies up 69-68. clemson was out of timeouts and had to rush the ball up the court. Tech did not have a chance to setup their half court defense and Vassallo committed his fifth foul reaching in to try and stop freshman Demontez Stitt with 3.8 seconds to go. Stitt calmly walked to the line and drained both free throws to put the tigers ahead. Deron tried a desperation three from 35 feet at the buzzer, but it did not find the mark.

The Hokies led by five with 2:54 to go, but then the wheels came off for about two minutes. VT let Stitt score an easy layup, then promptly turned the ball over on successive possessions leading to four more tiger points and a 66-65 lead. But Rivers was T’d up for taunting after the bucket. The Hokies shot four free throws on the next possession, but made just one. In fact, the Hokies were just 2/6 from the line in the final three minutes in addition to the critical turnovers. Those two things are why VT lost.

A.D. Vassallo had a terrific game for VT. He led all scorers with 23 and was clutch when Tech needed a bucket. He helped keep Tech in the game in the final 8 minutes of the first half. Jeff Allen and Deron were out with 2 fouls and clemson built up a 10 point lead thanks to four three-pointers from freshman Terrence Oglesby. Two of them were from well beyond NBA range. Dorenzo Hudson played well and had 7 points, all in the first half with Allen and Deron out.

In the second half, VT led by as many as 6, including an 11-0 run that took the Hokies from 7 down to up 58-54. However, the officiating seemed poor down the stretch, not calling fouls on two Allen dunk attempts yet calling the same thing against Tech on the other end.

Jeff Allen had a double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds. Deron came close with 15 and 8. The Hokies dominated the glass by a 46-31 margin.

VT also did a good job on defense, holding the tigers to just 43% from the field and 33% from three-point land. Actually, if you take out Oglesby’s 5/7 mark from long range, the tigers were just 2/14 on threes and Tech cleaned up most of the rebounds. The tigers were also a pathetic 11/21 from the line, but hit four big ones down the stretch while the Hokies were missing. Again, that’s the difference in this one, along with turnovers. Tech had 20 giveaways for the game to just 12 for the tigers.

This was not a game Hank Thorns will want to remember. He was just plain awful and really struggled with the tiger pressure D. The tigers pressed all game off every make, running a suffocating full court trap at VT. Thorns had 7 turnovers, easily his worst performance of the season.

Despite the loss, you have to proud of the effort the Hokies gave. They played well in this one and could have easily won in a hostile environment. Tech is really gelling at the right time. The only problem is this was a must win to make the NCAAs. Tech is 0-6 against RPI Top 50 teams, the kind of teams that will be in the NCAA Tournament. That doesn’t help your case. The Hokies now must win in the quarterfinals Thursday (likely against miami or maryland… root for it to be miami since Tech hasn’t beaten them yet and they have a much higher RPI) and then possibly need to win in the semifinals on Saturday against unc in all likelihood.

Niemo’s Notes:

• I disagree with the announcers. I think Seth Greenberg did the right thing by going for a quick shot at the end of the game instead of holding it for the last shot. Seth called a timeout with 15 seconds left, and then Tech quickly went at the basket, leading to the go-ahead bucket. This allowed clemson time to go down and ultimately score. But you are hedging your bets by doing this. If Tech had missed, they would have had time to foul the terrible free throw shooting tigers and have another possession to try and tie or win the game. So I agree with Seth on this one.
• As for why VT always looks better in the 2nd half, I wonder if it is great halftime adjustments on Seth’s part, or the fact that the guys that were out with 2 fouls most of the first half are back in. I have to assume it is a combination of the two. Seth is a very good in-game coach.
• Tech loses so many minutes of their star players in the first half due to early foul trouble.
• Dorenzo Hudson looked like the guy we saw at wake forest. He was aggressive going at the basket, and wasn’t afraid to pull it from outside. Look for him to be a key player next year once he’s had more practice time with the team.
• Jeff Allen really does have great hands, as the announcers said. Or “suction cups”, as they called it. Gotta recruit hands. Nubs just won’t get it done.
• Tech finished the 2nd half of ACC play at 4-4. Amazingly, this is worse than they did in the 1st half when they went 5-3. This marks the third time in four ACC seasons they have done worse in the 2nd half. Two years ago they were equally bad in both halves, going 2-6.
• VT is now 31-33 in ACC regular season action, fourth best in wins over that time behind unc, duke and maryland. bc has a better win percentage though.
• The Hokies finished 6-2 at home in ACC play and 3-5 on the road. Not bad for such a young team, especially considering how close Tech was to winning at wake and clemson.

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