It’s not the way Erick Green wanted to end his career, but with the way the Hokies have played this season, today’s 17-point loss to nc state is hardly surprising.

Green hit his first two shots of the game, back-to-back threes, but was ice cold from that point on, scoring just 15 points on 5 of 19 shooting, as the 12th-seeded Hokies lost 63-80 to the 4th-seeded wolfpack.

The Winchester Rifle(man) really struggled. He had four turnovers in the first half, equalling his season-high for a game. Lorenzo Brown did a terrific job of shutting down the ACC Player of the Year. Of course, Green still got 15 points, so even on a bad day, he’s still good enough for 15.

Jarell Eddie played his best game in more than two months, scoring 21 points in the loss, the most he’s scored since he had 21 in a home loss to boston college on Jan. 9.

Outside of Eddie and Green, the Hokies didn’t get much from the rest of the team. Cadarian Raines had 8 points, pretty much all on dunks, and Marquis Rankin also had 8 points.

Tech managed to keep it relatively close in the first half and even led for a bit, but Richard Howell pretty much had his way with the Hokies inside the paint. Howell scored a game-high 22 points, but got help from C.J. Leslie, who had 15, while Scott Wood and T.J. Warren each added 13 points.

The Hokies have one of the worst defenses in the country and it was on full display Thursday afternoon.

It’s sad to think that this was how Erick Green ended his career at Virginia Tech. There is no post-season. No NIT. No CBI. Nothing. He’s done as a college player.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that the Hokies practiced with metal chairs on the court, presumably as teammates, sympbolizing the level of help Green got from the rest of the team this season. Apparently that didn’t help with motivation.

The Hokies, under first-year head coach James Johnson, finish 13-19, their worst season in 10 years, when they went 12-17 under ricky “program bomb” stokes.

The Hokies delivered a dud of a regular season finale on the road against wake forest, losing 79-90. This game was never close. The final score is not an accurate representation of how soundly the Hokies were beaten today, especially in the paint.

The good news is that Erick Green went off for 35 points, tied for his career-high, and in doing so, gave him 786 for the season, one more than Bimbo Coles’ school record of 785. We should say Coles’ OLD record because Erick “The Winchester Rifleman” Green is the new sheriff in town.

Erick also moved into the top 10 on the Virginia Tech all time scoring list.  His 15th point on the day moved him past Ace Custis. He now has 1,727 career points (Ace had 1706).  Baring a deep ACC Tournament run, he’ll finish in 10th.

And in case anyone is wondering, Green’s 786 points came in 31 games. Bimbo’s 785 points also came in 31 games. So to quote Techsideline.com, “it’s a legit record.”

Although it was already locked up, it’s pretty much official that Green will finish the regular season as the nation’s and ACC’s leading scorer. And get this, he’s the first ACC player since south carolina’s (yes, they used to be in the ACC) Grady Wallace did so in 1957. Think of all the ACC greats that ever accomplished that feat: Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan, Ralph Sampson, etc., etc., etc.

Outside of those two highlights, that was about it. Virginia Tech’s “big men” played pretty small today. As Bill Roth said during the game, “Hokies giving up layup after layup.” It was about ugly as a game as we’ve seen all season. And how many times have we said that this year?

After the game, ACC broadcaster and former virginia player Cory Alexander gave his vote for ACC player of the year to Green. All the votes are due by 9 p.m., Sunday night (tonight), so we should probably hear something later this evening.

If you want to recap the play-by-play, go to HokieSports.com and look up the box score and relive the agony of defeat.

Want numbers of who scored what? Here you go:

The Hokies fall on the road against duke, 85-57, despite 25 points from Erick Green. It was senior night for duke (thank the gods), which finished it’s 2012-13 home schedule a perfect 16-0.

This game was closer than the final score would have you believe. Tech trailed by just three at the half (38-35), and actually led for a large chunk of the first half.

Jarell Eddie got things started on a good now for the Hokies early on, burying back-to-back threes to put Tech up 6-1. Green, however, was the only Tech players to put together a solid game start to finish. Eddie started strong, but duke shut him and everyone else down from then on. Eddie finished with 13 points.

Tech actually played a decent game. They committed only 10 turnovers, which isn’t bad considering some of their previous performances. But, duke only turned it over three times.

But the turnovers weren’t what won this game for the home team. It all came down to shooting percentages and duke was pretty much unstoppable. The little devils hit 52 percent from the field (30/58) and 52 percent from three-point range, connecting on 12 of 23 attempts. The Hokies shot 37 percent from the field (22/57) and 29 percent from three (5/17).

The officiating, as you’d imagine, seemed to favor the home team, but the Hokies did get some calls go their way, which usually sent Coach K into his usual spittle spewing tirades.

Look, no one was disillusioned enough to think the Hokies could actually pull of an upset of the dookies on the road, on senior night, with a healthy Ryan Kelly back in the lineup. What was a little surprising was how close the game was.

Four duke players scored in double digits: Seth Curry has 20, Kelly 18, Quinn Cook and Mason Plumlee both had 14. The Hokies had only two players, Green (25) and Eddie (13), reached double digits.

Not a single Tech player register a plus rating in this game.

Just one more regular season game left for Coach James Johnson and his team.

BOXSCORE

The Hokies wrapped up their home schedule with a 69-61 victory over the clemson tigers on SENIOR DAY! And my, what a day it was for Tech’s senior starter, Erick Green. Erick scored 17 first half points on his way to 29 points in his final game at the Cassell and chants of “Green Machine” filled the Coliseum as he iced the game away from the line. Green was 8/12 from the field and an amazing 5/7 from behind the arc. Erick now has 1,667 career points. He is just 40 points away from surpassing Ace Custis and entering the VT Top 10 scoring list.

HATS OFF TO YOU, MR. GREEN! It has been a pleasure watching you these last six years (since he committed to VT during his junior year at Millbrook HS on his way to a state title).

And major props to the hundreds of fans that wore green to honor Erick Green! That was awesome. It was a great crowd tonight (although a small crowd – just 5,100) from start to buzzer from the fans that were there.

C.J. Barksdale had another great game with 14 points. He’s averaged over 14 ppg in his last 4 games (he had scored just 21 total points in his previous 9 games).

Robert Brown added an ACC career high of 13 points on 6/8 FGs (11 points in the first half).

The Hokies shot an amazing 63% from the field in the first half on their way to an 11-point lead at the break, 36-25. That was thanks in part to a 14-4 run that turned a 15-11 deficit into a 25-19 lead with 7:30 left in the first half. The 11-point halftime lead was Tech’s largest halftime lead in ACC play and their biggest lead at the break since the vmi game (game #3 back in November).

They led by as many as 15 in the second half until clemson utilized a full court trap-press. Tech started turning the ball over at will and the tigers took advantage, going on an 8-0 run to cut the VT lead to 3 at 46-43 with 11:30 to go. clemson would score on 7 straight possessions and get within 2, but no closer and the Hokies held on to win.

Once again free throws were key for VT. They hit 9/10 in the final 2:12 to keep clemson in the rear view mirror (it was a 3-point game most of the final 2 minutes).

Tech shot 55% from the field for the game and 6/13 (46%) on 3s. The only negative for the Hokies was their inability to handle the clemson press in the 2nd half, and as a result, committing 16 turnovers (5 by Brown and 4 by Green).

The home team has now won 6 straight in this series (and VT won at a neutral site, the ACC Tourney, last year).

clemson was without stud K.J. McDaniels who had 5 dunks at VT last year and 17 points in the first meeting at clemson, including 5/7 on 3s.

Milton Jennings, who had 28 in the game at clemson, was held to 13 tonight. Devin Booker led clemson with 17.

Tech finishes the season 10-7 at the Cassell (3-6 in ACC play). They have two ACC road games remaining with duke on Tuesday and wake on Sunday.

Well, what did you expect the Hokies to do on the road against the 5th ranked team in the country, which was coming off an embarrassing blowout loss to wake forest?

Virginia Tech got manhandled Wednesday night in Coral Gables, losing to the hurricanes 76-58 behind 22 points from Shane Larkin and 20 points from Kenny Kadji.

Erick Green failed to score 20 points in a game for just the third time this season. He lead the Hokies with 16 points. C.J. Barksdale scored 12, giving him three straight games with in double-digits. He’s really starting to come on strong – a good sign for Hokie hoop heads thinking ahead to next season. Barks also led the team with seven rebounds.

Robert Brown added 12 points, all in the second half. It tied his career-high for points in a regular ACC game. He scored 16 against duke in last year’s ACC tournament.

Green appeared to roll his right ankle, though there was speculation that it might have been his hip, about midway through the first half. He sat for a couple of minutes and appeared to be in excruciating pain, but did return the game. He had only six points in the first half.

The canes held a 15-14 lead and the Hokies were in the game with Miami struggling to score. And then the dam levies broke and the canes surged ahead courtesy of a 23-5 run to end the half and take a 38-19 lead into the half.

The second half was more of the same. Sure, the Hokies scored twice as many points in the second half (39) as they did in the first half (19), but they couldn’t guard miami, who scored another 38 points in the second half.

Tech shot a hair under 40 percent from the field (21/53) and just 19 percent from behind the arc (3/16). Against FSU, the Hokies were deadly from the charity stripe, against miami, not so much. They hit just 68 percent of their free throws (13/19).

Meanwhile, the canes shot an even 50 percent from the field on 23-of-46 shooting; made 73 percent of their free throws (22/30); and 8/21 three-pointers (38 percent). The canes made more free throws (22) than the Hokies attempted (19).

Next up, clemson. Saturday night, 8 p.m., at the Cassell. It’s senior night, so wear Green in honor of Erick Green, who will play his final home game. Let the sobbing begin.

Box Score

UPDATED Feb. 25, 2013, 8:22 a.m. to correct Rankin’s playing time. He played the first 2 minutes and 48 seconds of the second half and then left the game. Earlier, we incorrectly reported that he missed the entire second half. We blame it on Leonard Hamilton’s hack-a-Barksdale strategy that made the second half go on FOREVER.

The nine-game losing streak is over. Virginia Tech, which hadn’t won a game in more than a month, frustrated florida state all day and got balanced scoring and deadly accurate free throw shooting down the stretch to beat the noles 80-70.

The victory prevented the Hokies’ first 10-game losing streak since the 2001-02 season.

Erick Green, the Winchester Rifleman, scored a game-high 26 points on 8/17 shooting and a perfect 9/9 from the free throw line. Ever more impressive, Green finally got some help Sunday evening. For the second straight contest, sophomore C.J. Barksdale scored a career-high 17 points and made 9/11 free throws – eight in the final 2:37. In addition to Barksdale’s big night, the Hokies got 25 points from the bench.

Robert Brown played arguably his best game since he scored 18 points in a 95-79 win over Iowa back on Dec. 7, 2012. Brown was 6/8 from the field and 5/5 from the FT line in that game. Sunday night, he was 4/8 from the field, 1/3 from three-point range, and 2/2 from the charity stripe.

Marquis Rankin played out-of-his-mind defense on Michael Snaer in the first half. Snaer, as you probably recall, killed the Hokies last season with a buzzer beater to win the game. Rankin, who has 8 points in the first half, got sick during halftime, and only played the first 2:48 of the second half. After that, he did not return.

Trailing 6-3 in the opening minutes of the first half, the Hokies reeled off a 6-0 run to take a 9-6 lead. The noles responded with an 8-0 run of their own. Tech was not to be denied, though. Brown scored six straight points for the Hokies to keep the home team within striking distance.

With the score 21-19 in fsu’s favor, the noles’ head coach Leonard Hamilton started screaming at the officials and kept on screaming. He was finally T’ed up and darn near got thrown out of the game. That sent Tech’s Erick Green to the free throw line for a pair of uncontested shots that tied the game at 21.

Green went on to score VT’s last seven points (and 9 of its last 11) in the first half to give the Hokies a slim 28-26 half-time lead.

The second half was all Hokies for the most part, despite not having Rankin and his lockdown defense on Snear. Tech opened the second half with a 14-3 run and while the noles closed the gap a few times, the Hokies weren’t to be denied their first win in more than a month.

Green scored 15 of his 26 points down the stretch to secure the victory, but this was the first total team win in a long time for first-year head coach James Johnson. Though Green played a game-high 38 minutes, he wasn’t the only threat the noles had to worry about tonight. Barksdale played very well, especially crashing the boards and going after loose balls.

Rankin, as we mentioned, was incredible on defense. Walk-on Christian Beyer even got in on the action with a pretty reverse layup (that didn’t get blocked) that gave the Hokies a 23-21 lead. And Will Johnston (aka Willy-J), another walk-on making his third career start, had a career-high three steals.

This was a must-win game. This team, and in particular, this coach, did not need the dubious distinction of being the first Virginia Tech squad in 11 years to lose 10 straight games.

Earlier in the day, on the same court, the Virginia Tech women defeated the 19th-ranked fsu women’s team, 71-52. When the men followed with their win over the noles, it marked the first time since March 6, 2004, that both the Virginia Tech men’s and women’s basketball teams beat the same opponent on the same day.

Box Score

The Hokies dropped their ninth straight game Thursday night before a national TV audience, losing to sixth-ranked duke, 88-56, at home. So much for #BEATDUKE. The 32-point loss is VT’s worst ACC loss this season. Their worst loss was a 36-point defeat (88-55) at the hands of colorado state.

Erick Green just about got his, as we figured he would, scoring 22 points (3.3 points below his average) to maintain his status as the nation’s leading scorer with 25.1 ppg — creighton’s Craig McDermott is second in the nation with 22.9 ppg.

Green did get some help tonight, but as usual, it was not enough. C.J. Barksdale scored a career-high 14 points and added 8 rebounds. Cadarian Raines also reached double-digits with 10 points.

The Hokies jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead and then it all went downhill. Actually, that’s putting it nicely. The fit hit the shan. The flood gates opened. The four horsemen road into the Cassell. And death followed. Well, not exactly death, but really embarrassing loss.

The dookies reeled off 11 unanswered points including three 3-pointers from Seth Curry. Not surprisingly, duke shot lights out from everywhere on the court. In the first half, duke hit 8 of 9 three-pointers, all 10 free throw attempts, and 60 percent from the field. Curry had 19 at the half. Green had 13.

Once the blue devils went on their 11-0 run, this game was never close. Ever. And here’s why: duke made 12 of 17 three-pointers – that’s 70 percent. SEVENTY PERCENT. The Hokies, on the other hand, made just 1 of 16 three attempts for a mind-numbing 6 percent. Green hit a three in the second half to avoid the shutout.

The Hokies didn’t really have a shot in this game. They played nc state tough, so duke knew not to take them lightly. Plus, the dookies lost to maryland and Coach K was non too happy, so duke came to Blacksburg to lay the lumber to the DFL team in the league. And that’s exactly what they did.

Seth Curry, the son of Virginia Tech legend Dell Curry, torched the Hokies for 22 points, scoring 19 of those in the first half. Of course, duke didn’t need him in the second half; the game was already over.

At this point in the season, I think it’s safe to say that every team we play doesn’t just happen to have a hot shooting night against us. There’s something wrong with the way we defend — some would argue that we don’t defend at all and they’d be right in many respects — but Coach James Johnson needs to do something. Anything. You can’t let a team hit 70 percent of threes (12 of 17!!) on your home court.

Despite playing it’s best game, perhaps of the season, the Hokies dropped their eighth straight game Saturday afternoon, losing 90-86 in overtime to heavily favored nc state on the road.

Senior guard Erick Green scored a game-high 29 points. In his previous four games vs. the wolfpack, Green had just 27 points combined.

Virginia Tech held a 60-53 lead in the second half, but nc state went on a 14-0 run to take a 67-60 lead. The Hokies, however, did not quit. Trailing by three with :08 left, the pack fouled Green as he crossed mid-court with about :05 left. Green made the first and intentionally missed the second. Eddie grabbed the rebound and put it back up and in to tie the game at 78.

nc state’s Lorenzo Brown missed a desperation half-court shot and the game went to overtime. The Hokies led a couple of times in the extra period, but committed two critical turnovers that eventually cost them the game.

While the loss will sting, there is finally a few bright spots! Freshman Marshall Wood had his coming out part by scoring a career-high 14 points and pulling down a career-high 16 rebounds. And junior Jarell Eddie, who has hasn’t started the last two games, came of the bench to score 17 points.

Notes:
The Hokies’ 36 points in the first half were the most since VT scored 37 points against Maryland on Jan. 7. Tech trailed 37-53 at the half of that game.

Virginia Tech attempted a season-high 80 shots. EIGHTY! Their previous high was 68 attempts. Tech made 35 of those 80 shots for a 44 percent average.

The Hokies hit 11 of 23 free throws 48 percent from the behind the arc, well above their season average. The 11 made threes were the most since VT hit 14 vs. unc-greensboro.

Here’s a stat that’ll make you pull your hair out. The wolfpack attempted 43 free throws. The Hokies attempted seven. Yep. nc state attempted six times more FTs then VT.

Well, that was about what we expected. One of those days turned into one of those weeks that has turned into one of those seasons. And one of those seasons continued Tuesday with another one of those nights.

The surging cavaliers walloped the hapless Hokies 73-55 at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville, handing tech its seventh straight loss.

Erick Green scored just one point in the first half, but scored 21 points of Tech’s 32 points in the second. Green’s 22 points led the team, but he was just 4/17 from the field. No other Hokie scored in double figures.

Meanwhile, Joe Harris scored a career-high 26 points tonight to lead the cavs. The 18-point margin of victory is the biggest in favor of the hoos in the series since 1991 when the Hokies lost to No. 18 ranked virginia, 86-61, in Richmond.

Statistically, this game was a virtual dead heat, save for one very important category: field goal percentage. The hoos shot 46 percent to just 34 percent for Virginia Tech. Both teams grabbed 33 rebounds, both teams attempted about the same amount of shots (VT – 52, uva – 50), and about the same number of free throw attempts (VT – 19, uva – 23). The only real difference is that uva made more shots.

virginia shot nearly 50 percent from three-point range, hitting 9 of 19 shots. Sound familiar? The Hokies jacked up 25 threes, but made only eight. They also hit just 18 of 52 shots. uva hit 22 of 50.

Make no mistake, this wasn’t an off-night for the Hokies and they didn’t get jobbed by the refs. They got beat by a better team. uva’s defense is really good and they smothered the Hokies all night. The cavs held Green to just one point in the first half.

The win was the 14th straight for the wahoos at home.

Also, there will be no game lights. Not that you’d watch them. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have a post-game interview with a Mr. Wild Turkey.

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.

Make it four straight moral victories for the Hokies and five straight losses.

Thursday night at Cassell Coliseum, Virginia Tech played the visiting maryland terrapins tough, but couldn’t pull it out in the final minutes (sound familiar) and lost 60-55, giving the terps their first ACC road win of the season.

This was a game of streaks. The Hokies fell behind early and trailed by 11 points, before storming back to take a 27-24 half-time lead courtesy of a 17-3 run to end the half.

The terps came out of the break on fire and jumped out to a 9-0 run to take a six-point lead. The Hokies kept it close thanks to Erick “It ain’t easy being” Green and his game-high 29 points.

For the third straight game, Cadarian Raines scored in double-figures, scoring 14 points tonight and played maryland’s Alex Len pretty tough. Do the math (challenging after a few Wild Turkeys) and Green and Raines combined for 43 of VT’s 55 points. Even more math reveals that the rest of the team combined for 12 points.

Jake Layman, who torched the Hokies in College Park earlier this season, earning him a spot in the TechHoops.com Opponent Hall of Fame, led the terps in the game, but with a mere 14 points.

This was an ugly game to watch. The Hokies were 2-of-18 from three-point range (11 percent). The terps were 10-of-23 from the free throw line. VT did manage to keep the turnovers in check, only giving it up seven times.

Though it was painful to watch for the most part, the game did have some exciting moments, including some BRRAAAAAHHHHH dunks by Raines.

As for the Opponent Hall of Fame, I’m not sure we have any worthy nominees. Tech’s defense

Make it three in a row for the Hokies! Three “moral” victories. After that, make it four straight losses for Coach James Johnson and his squad.

For just the second time this season, Erick Green did not score at least 20 points in a game, going more than 16 minutes without a point in the second half as the Hokies blew a 12-point first-half lead and went on to lose 72-60 in overtime in Chapel Hill.

Green finished with 16 points. For the first time since the Hokies beat then No. 15 ranked oklahoma state, and for the first time in ACC play this season, four Hokies scored in double figures. In addition to Green’s 16 points, Jarell Eddie had 15, Cadarian Raines had 12 (his second straight game with double figure scoring), and Robert Brown added 10.

Even though unc is not ranked and is having a “down” season, playing in the dean dome is never easy. The Hokies came out en fuego this afternoon. They exploded out of the gate for a quick 12-0 lead and were playing well and in sync.

Not surprisingly, however, the tar heels didn’t stay cold for long and eventually whittled away at Tech’s lead. The Hokies managed to keep the heels at bay for the first 30 minutes. unc didn’t earn its first lead of the game until midway through the second half, just about the time the Hokies hit their usual dry spell.

While James Michael McAdoo led unc in scoring with 22 points, it was freshman Marcus Paige that had the big day and was quickly inducted into the TechHoops.com Opponent Hall of Fame. Paige, who averages 6.8 points per game, scored a career-high 19 against the Hokies. He also hit a career-best four three-pointers.

The Hokies had their chances, but a combination of ice-cold shooting, poor rebounding, and some questionable no-calls in the final minutes sent the game into OT.

Green and the Hokies actually had a shot to win the game on the final possession, but he forced up a bad shot and air-balled it. unc got the rebound with 1.6 seconds left, but couldn’t convert at the other end.

OT was all unc as the heels outscored the Hokies 17-5.

Box Score

Make it two in a row! Two “moral” victories in a row, that is.

It was a valiant effort and the Hokies certainly gave the 14th-ranked hurricanes all they could handle tonight, but it wasn’t enough. miami overcame a 12-point first-half deficit to beat the Hokies 73-64.

All-intergalactic guard Erick Green scored 30 points to lead all scorers. He hit a career-high five three-pointers. Surprisingly, Green didn’t have to carry the entire load in the first half. Jarell Eddie and Robert Brown each scored eight points in the first 20 minutes to help the Hokies take a 12-point lead.

The second half? Not so much. Green scored 16 of the Hokies’ 32 second-half points. Brown was shut out and Eddie didn’t score a second-half field goal until he hit a three-pointer with :33 left. He did hit three free throws with 2:14 remaining to cut Miami’s lead to 60-56. Eddie finished with 14 points.

Cadarian Raines, who has struggled to put points on the board, added six points in the second and had 10 for the game. Brown finished with eight and Joey van Zegeren was the only other player to score; he had two points.

Coming into the game, the Hokies could not afford a slow start like the one that cost them a loss to clemson on Sunday. Thursday night, at home against No. 14 ranked miami, Tech got off to fantastic start with Green and Eddie hitting back-to-back three pointers.

The hot start got the crowd into the game early and helped push Virginia Tech to a surprising 12-point lead, 28-16, with just under six minutes to play in the first half.

But miami’s NBA-sized front court and lightning quick backcourt shook off the unexpectedly good start by the Hokies and used an 18-3 run to cut VT’s lead to three at the half.

The Hokies hung with the canes for the first nine minutes of the second half, but miami went on a 10-0 run midway through the second to surge past the tired Hokies and take a 9-point lead. That was the ball game.

Closing thoughts:

• Shane Larkin is a shoe-in for the Opponent Hall of Fame. He came in averaging just over 12 point a game ended up with 25 points, a new career-high in an ACC contest and two shy of tying his career-best (vs. Jacksonville). He also hit a career-high five three-pointers tonight vs. the Hokies.
• Erick Green score 30 points while the remaining four starters combined for 16 points (Eddie had 14, JVZ 2, Barksale 0, Rankin 0)

Box Score

Most coaches don’t believe in moral victories because they almost always come at the expense of an actual loss on your schedule. Still, moral victories do have some benefits, such as knowing that your team, despite not scoring for the first 6 minutes and 48 seconds of the game and trailing 12-0, didn’t quit.

The Hokies (2-4) lost their second straight game, 77-70, on the road against clemson. Senior all-universe guard Erick Green scored his average, 25 points, to lead Virginia Tech. Jarell Eddie had a solid game with 19 points, but it wasn’t enough.

The Hokies got off to about as bad of a start as you could possibly imagine (excluding injuries). Virginia Tech fell behind 12-0 and missed its first 10 shots of the game. The Hokies didn’t get on the board until Erick Green, the nation’s leading scorer, converted fast-break layup with 13:22 to play in the first half, nearly seven minutes into the game.

It appeared that the Hokies would get blown out of the gym, but somehow, they fought and scratched and clawed their way back into the game and used a 13-4 run to tie the game at 33 going into the half. tiger fans had to be wondering how this could be given that VT went scoreless for the first seven minutes.

The second half was a back-and-forth affair. Tech took its first lead of the game just 40 seconds into the second half when Eddie buried a three. But in the end, clemson simply had more depth and better players and wore the Hokies down with its perimeter shooting.

Eddie was 5-of-11 from the field and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Green was 7-of-17 from the field and 11-of-14 from the line. Together, Green and Eddie shot 12-of-28 (42 percent), while the rest of the Hokies shot just 9-of-32 (28 percent).

For the fifth time this season, Green went 0-for- from behind the arc. The first two times he didn’t make a three, the Hokies won. The last three times he hasn’t scored a trey, they’ve lost. Today, he was 0-for-3.

Tech was out-rebounded 42-33 and had a season-high nine shots blocked. The Hokies committed 25 fouls, the second most this season (they had 26 in the home loss to bc). Fifteen of those fouls against clemson came from Joey van Zegeren, C.J. Barksdale, and Cadarian Raines, all three of whom fouled out.

@hiphop_hokie pointed out another demoralizing fact from today’s game in a Tweet:

@TechHoops Barksdale & Raines – who I watched battle in the VHSL AAA qtrs – 1 point. Walk-on Beyer, 4 points. Unreal lack of post presence

As for the TechHoops.com Opponent Hall of Fame, you can expect three nominees this week: senior Milton Jennings, who averages 9.8 points per game, but had a career-best 28 points today. There’s also K.J. McDaniels, a sophomore who averages 10.8 a game and scored 17 today thanks to a career-best FIVE three pointers. And last but not least we have Damarcus Harrison, another sophomore that averages less than 5 points per game, but had a… wait for it… career-high 19 points today against the Hokies.

“God. Just make it stop.” Five syllables that pretty much sum up the Hokies’ demoralizing 16-point home loss to the hoos.

This will probably be the shortest recap in the history of TechHoops.com. Here’s all you need to know. Erick Green scored a career-high 35 points. Doesn’t take a math major to figure out that the rest of the team only scored 23 points.

Green, the nation’s leading scorer, was the only Virginia Tech player to score more than 10 points. He also had a career-high nine rebounds.

The Hokies blew a 19-10 lead in the first half with about 11 minutes to play. They allowed uva to go on a 24-2 run, and that was pretty much the ball game. Tech never recovered and never really made it a game after that. All they did was keep from getting blown out like dook did at miami last night.

Jarell Eddie had 9 points, Rankin had 6, Raines had 4, Joey van Zegeren and C.J. Barksdale each had two. And that was it.

I think it’s safe to say that we can add uva’s Evan Nolte to our Opponents Hall of Fame as he scored a career-high 18 points.

Also, uva had a season-high 11 three-pointers. And its 74 points are the most the hoos have scred in ACC play this season.

Robert Brown was ice cold and a non factor offensively. He went 0-for-3 in 24 minutes, had one turnover and four personal fouls. JVZ had a Deron Washington-like tomahawk dunk, except that it was called an offensive foul.

Tech didn’t defend the three at all and didn’t do anything on offense. On the plus side, the hoos only give up 50 points a game and tonight, VT scored 58. So… there’s that.

If you watched this game, I feel for you, because it was a train wreck. Except that you can clean up a train wreck. I don’t think this team is bouncing back or getting its act together. I think this is what you can expect for the rest of the season: Erick Green getting his 25 a game and wondering if the rest of the team will show up.

The Hokies pulled out another come-from-behind win this afternoon, 66-65, over wake forest.

The demon deacons held the nation’s leading scorer, Erick Green, to just four first-half points. But they couldn’t contain him for an entire game as the Winchester Rifleman dropped 18 points in the second half and led the Hokies with 22 for the game.

While Green was being double-teamed in the first, Jarell Eddie stepped up with 15 points in the opening half. He finished with 18.

Cadarian Raines had a huge game, scoring eight points and pulling down 13 rebounds, tying his career high.

Tech trailed 37-31 at the half, but opened the second half with an 8-0 run to take a 38-37 lead. wake called a timeout and then went on a 6-0 run to retake the lead.

The deacs took a 51-43 lead as part of a 15-4 run, but VT answered with an 8-0 run of its own to tie the game. From there it was a back and forth game.

wake took a 65-64 lead with 24 seconds left, and when everyone thought Green would take the final shot, Robert Brown, who had struggled the entire game, got the ball and drove the lane, made the shot and got the foul. The basket gave the Hokies a 66-65 lead with about 12 seconds left.

Brown missed the free throw and wake got the rebound and called a timeout. The deacons got two decent shots after inbounding the ball, but couldn’t get either to go and Eddie pulled down the rebound off the second miss, securing the victory.

While he didn’t play a lot of minutes, Christian Beyer, a walk-on, had a critical series in the second half that helped spur Tech’s rally. After a wake miss, Beyer fought hard for a rebound, got it and fed Green in transition who made the basket and got fouled. Beyer’s play has been impressive and his confidence is growing. Like this kid.

Hokies have now won two straight and are 2-2 in ACC play. That’s all for now. Time for some Mike’s Grill!