Categorized | 2011-12 Season, Game Recaps

Recap | Hokies (6-3) 78, rams (1-8) 67

Posted on07 December 2011. Tags: ,

Erick Green came off the bench to lead the Hokies with 24 points, Cadarian Raines scored a career-high 12 points, and Marquis Rankin made his first career start as the Hokies shook off a sluggish first half to beat rhode island 78-67.

Green, a junior guard, started the game on the bench because of “the manner in which he was carrying himself.” Sounds like someone was getting a little too big for his britches, but when you’re the Mean Green Machine, can you blame him? Whatever he did to draw the ire of Greenberg, starting the game on the bench seemed to motivate MGM, because his 24 points led all scorers and was a bucket shy of setting a new personal best.

Dorian Finney-Smith had 11 points, the fifth time this season he’s reached double figures. Meanwhile, fellow freshman Robert Brown had an off game for him, registering only two points. After scoring 15 points against kansas state and 13 against minnesota, UPS didn’t quite deliver tonight, but as a freshman, you can’t expect double digits every night. He’s already shown that he can play big time ball, so he just needs more playing time.

The Hokies and rams both started off slow offensively, but that’s probably because of the defense both teams play. Tech fell behind early, 7-0, but used a 9-2 run to pull even. Raines was a lot more aggressive on the boards tonight and scored the 6 of the Hokies’ first 11 points. Doe Doe’s first six points were three pointers, one of which gave Tech its first lead of the game.

Tech built a 7-point lead, 24-19, but allowed the rams to stay close and ended up with just a 1-point lead at the half, 28-27.

The second half featured a lot more offense. The Hokies nearly doubled their first half points total, outscoring rhode island 50-40. Sophomore Jarrell Eddie got hot in the second half including a key sequence in which he blocked a shot by the rams and then went down at the other end and buried three pointer. Eddie scored 15 points, two shy of his career best. Eddied was 5/6 from the field including a perfect 3/3 from behind the arc.

The Hokies pulled away late in the second half and put it away down the stretch. The first half was interesting, but Tech was too much for the struggling rams.

Two more disappointing performances from senior Victor Davila who put up a big donut in just 13 minutes while fellow senior Dorenzo Hudson managed just 8 points. Raines, if he can stay healthy, could probably take most of Davila’s minutes as he did tonight. Raines was 6/8 from the field in a career-high 25 minutes of play.

The Hokies return to the Cassell Coliseum to face norfolk state on Sunday, Dec. 11, at 4 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPN3.

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- who has written 220 posts on Tech Hoops.

Gary is a Virginia Tech graduate and veteran sports journalist with a career spanning on-air work in television and radio, and as a writer, editor and columnist in newspapers. He has covered the Hokies since 1993.

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  • Chris Hatcher

    Why the hell have our opponents only been called for more fouls than us in two games. TWO!? OUT OF NINE! Tonight was among the most pisspore job by the officials. We were fouling them 3 to 1 and had taken 1/4 the number of FT’s they had until desperation fouls late!

    • Niemo

      Chris – it is because we don’t attack the rim, and aren’t good defended on the ball. So, defensively, perimeter players have an easy time beating us off the dribble and getting to the second level. It is easy to get foul calls when you go hard to the hoop, and Zo is the only guy we have that is good at drawing charges. On offense, we aren’t good at breaking down the defender off the ball and getting to the hoop. Instead, we shoot runners. So this is the result.

  • vtgoad

    Nice to get a road win and turn the ship around.

    Greenberg tweeted last night, “Loyalty is a 2 way street. If we want loyalty we have to give loyalty Vic and Zo will win us games” With all the young talent coming in, it’s easy to push these seniors out the door too early. Hudson will be a key factor in our season’s success. While I’m not high on Davilla starting, I believe he could be a force off the bench when we need points down low.

    Really hope Green doesn’t get too ahead of himself. I’ve loved how much more of a team we are this year than in past years where the offense boiled down to Delaney or Allen.

    • Niemo

      Goad – I thought that was a great quote by Seth and was going to write something about it, but I guess you beat me to it! I do have some thoughts on this, I may save it until I write up my notes. But thanks for pointing that out, Seth makes a great point.

  • http://www.heyhokie.com Goodraisin

    I’ve gotta say, I think that quote from Greenberg is truth. If Davila and Hudson weren’t giving enough effort, that’s a good reason to move those guys to the bench. But if they’re just going through a rough patch, then you can’t take away their “starter” status (which nobody cares about except the players themselves). Let Davila and Hudson keep their starter status, but take away some minutes from them. That seems to be exactly what Greenberg did against URI… he let Davila start, but for the most part he stuck with Raines in the key situations, and Raines rewarded him. Now we all know Raines isn’t going to score like that consistently, but the rebounds and presence in the paint are such a nice addition… I could really get used to that for this season and two more afterward. Also, great to see Erick Green come off the bench with a positive attitude and play well.

  • http://yahoo Ray

    where’s the highlights

    • Niemo

      No highlights. The game was only on the internet via Cox Sports Online. There was no way to transfer that feed to my computer (and I tried, believe me). Sorry!
      (Almost) all games on TV in the DC area, or ESPN3 via the internet, I should be able to make highlights for.

  • Chris Hatcher

    Niemo- I understand we need to drive. It’s been our Achilles Heel for every season I can remember other than 2009 and when Deron Washington or Wynton Witherspoon decided to take it to the rack. But what I should have said is the number of fouls being called on our post players is ridiculous. Arms straight up with no chest bump is being called 90% of the time. I’ve seen some games where if there’s a play that happens on the post, it’s a foul. That’s sorry on the officials part. We need an inside presence, but if we keep getting fouls at this alarming rate, there will be no way we can keep them on the floor. Also, I vote we cancel the first half of every remaining game this year. Any seconds?

    • Niemo

      Chris – I once had a coach tell me something that still sticks with me today – “a foul is anything that looks like a foul.” And a lot of what’s called is because, in the officials’ eyes, it looks like a foul. And because other teams are more aggressive than us, they get more whistles than us. But I bet the officials miss calls in the same situation as you state to our benefit, just less often because of fewer drives/feeds to post (that’s another thing, we do not feed the post much, whereas a team like st. bonnie feeds it inside on almost every possession).

      What chaps my arse is when officials blow the rules, as they did at the end of the minnesota game. I KNEW they made the wrong call at the time (a similar call had happened earlier that day in the fsu/mich state game and the refs talked about it and overruled the ‘incorrect’ call). And that may have cost us that game. That upsets me.

  • Les

    Frontline is undersized and the extra effort to defend using arms and hands draws fouls. They need a 6’10 240 center or a 6’8 260 power forward.

  • Chris Hatcher

    Agreed. It may have. But whatever we’re doing to draw the ire of the refs, we need to correct it. Maybe put a big patch on the jersey that said “I AM NOT JEFF ALLEN! OFFICIATE ACCORDINGLY.”

  • Chrishokie

    Disappointed to hear that Green may have some attitude issues. I have always viewed him as the behavioral antithesis of Delaney and Allen, bringing some emotional stability to the team. I hope this isn’t a recurring problem. But, his stat improvement from a year ago is remarkable. So, that might go to the head of a kid. Not just points, which was expected after Delaney, but shooting pcts. as well. He is not just throwing up more shots, he is doing it efficiently. Interesting that he isn’t getting a lot of assists. Seemes to be better suited as a shooting guard. Maybe Rankin can play point eventually.

  • LuvzAznChix

    Oh ho ho! The MEAN GREEN MACHINE is supposed to have the night off and what does he do? All he does is drop 24 on the puny Rhodys. Boo-ya!


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2012-13 Schedule

November
11/10 Hokies 80, etsu 62
11/12 Hokies 69, rhode island 50
11/15 Hokies 95, vmi 80
11/19 Hokies 96, unc-g 87
11/23 Hokies 87, appalachian state 76
**ACC/BIG Ten Challenge**
11/27 Hokies 95, iowa 79
December
12/1 Hokies 81, #15 oklahoma state 71
12/8 wvu 68, Hokies 67
**Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic**
12/10 Hokies 70, mvsu 49
12/15 Georgia Southern 78, Hokies 73
12/22 Hokies 66, bradley 65, OT
12/23 colorado state 88, Hokies 52
**Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic**
12/29 byu 97, Hokies 71
January
1/5 maryland 94, Hokies 71
1/9 boston college 86, Hokies 75
1/12 Hokies 70, georgia tech 65
1/19 Hokies 66, wake forest 65
1/24 virginia 74, Hokies 58
1/27 clemson 77, Hokies 70
1/30 miami 73, Hokies 64
February
2/2 unc 72, Hokies 60, OT
2/7 maryland 60, Hokies 55
2/9 Georgia Tech 64, hokies 54
2/12 virginia 73, Hokies 55
2/16 nc state 90, Hokies 86
2/21 duke 88, Hokies 56
2/24 Hokies 80, fsu 70
2/27 miami 76, Hokies 58
March
3/2 Hokies 69, clemson 61
3/5 duke 85, Hokies 57
3/10 wake 90, Hokies 79
**ACC Tournament in Greensboro**
3/14 vs. nc state, 2:30 p.m.
3/15 Quarterfinals
3/16 Semifinals
3/17 Finals

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