Box Score

Georgia Tech, Boston College, and virginia tech entered the weekend tied for DFL in the ACC standings. With the Yellow Jackets and hokies squaring off in Blacksburg, something had to give. And it was the hokies.

virginia tech dropped its sixth straight game Saturday afternoon, 64-54, to the Yellow Jackets, who picked up their first-ever win at Cassell Coliseum (1-7). Erick Green scored his usual 28 points, but didn’t get much help. Walk-on Will Johnston was the team’s second leading scorer for most of the game with six points on a pair of three-pointers. Robert Brown and Cadarian Raines scored a few late buckets when the game was already over.

Green had 28 points while the other four starters (Brown 10, Raines 6, Barksdale 1, Eddie 0) combined for a mind-numbing 17 points. Maybe it was the 38-hour turnaround between games. Maybe it was the flu that’s been going around. Maybe it’s that this team just isn’t good this year. Whatever it is, this is about as bad season we’ve seen since the ricky program bomb stokes era.

At least vt has Green, who has now scored at least 20 points in 21 of 23 games this season. The Winchester Rifleman has also led the hokies in scoring in 22 of the team’s 23 games this season. The only game in which he didn’t lead vt in points was against UNC Greensboro – Jarell Eddie had 26 to Green’s 24.

The hokies scored the first point of Saturday’s game; a free throw by C.J. Barksdale (his only point of the game). It was vt’s only lead of the game. Georgia Tech went on an 11-0 run and dominated the hokies the entire first half — leading by 22 at one point — and holding the hokies to a season-low 18 first-half points. vt’s previous half-time low was 22 against, wait for it… Georgia Tech. However, vt ended up winning that game in overtime, so it wasn’t unreasonable to think vt could come back.

Or, maybe it was. As we’ve seen the last four games, came us short, but didn’t quit. The hokies cut the Yellow Jackets’ lead down to 11 midway through the second half, 48-37, but vt couldn’t get any closer, at least when it mattered. The hokies did manage to cut the lead to 60-52, but with only :31 seconds left and Green on the bench, the game was already over.

You know the saying, “leaving it all on the floor”? That’s exactly was Green did in this game. In the final seconds, he had to come off the court with a cramp in his calf. He was completely gassed and looked ill. He sat on the bench with his eyes closed and his head resting on teammate Marshall Wood’s shoulder. When the final horn sounded, his teammates had to carry him off the court with team medical staff in tow.

Eddie struggled again in this game and his frustration caught up with him early in the second half when he slammed a water bottle to the court, causing the bottle to explode and spray water and ice all over the floor. Brown slipped and fell in the mess. James Johnson sat Eddie for the rest of game where the junior sulked.

After starting the season 7-0, the hokies are 4-12 since.