KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Virginia Tech was thoroughly outplayed by No. 19 Florida Atlantic on Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the ESPN Events Invitational, losing 84-50.
“Your defense has to travel, night-in and night-out,” Tech head coach Mike Young said after the loss. “We were really good on Friday [against Iowa State], I thought we were very good over the long haul against Boise [State], who I think both are NCAA Tournament teams. We got back on our heels, we didn’t respond very well, and that is something we can learn from as we get out of here.”
After the two sides went toe-to-toe for the first 16 minutes of the contest, the Owls (5-1) ripped off a 7-0 run to end the first half and took a 32-24 lead into the locker room.
All seemed OK for the Hokies (5-2) at intermission — Young said he told his bunch to “hang in there” — but FAU blew Tech’s doors off with a 12-0 run over the first 4:29 of the second half. That stretched the margin to 20 points, 44-24, and at that point, it felt over.
Tech fought back, cutting it to as few as 13, but another giant run from FAU, this one of 15-0 over four-plus minutes, made it more than a 30-point contest. It’s Tech’s first 30-point loss since Buzz Williams’ group fell to No. 17 West Virginia in December 2014 by 31.
In the first half, the Owls were 48 percent (13-of-28) from the field but just 3-of-10 from behind the arc. It was an even battle on the boards (16-all) and in turnovers (seven apiece). The difference was the Hokies couldn’t get the 3-pointers to fall (0-of-8) and were just 10-of-28 (36%) shooting.
Then everything started to snowball. Florida Atlantic slowly heated up and started the second half 5-of-9. At the same time, Virginia Tech couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. It endured a scoreless drought of 9:30, from 4:39 in the first half to 16:09 in the second, and missed 12 consecutive shots in that span — almost a quarter of the game.
The Hokies didn’t knock down a single 3-pointer with any of their normal rotational players, missing their first 15 attempts. Their first make came from true freshman Brandon Rechsteiner with 3:24 left, continuing the streak of 462 games in a row with a 3-pointer, which dates to Feb. 2003.
“It’s frustrating, but it’s part of the game,” said Tech guard Hunter Cattoor, who finished with a team-high 11 points on 4-of-13 shooting, including 0-of-8 from three. “Shooting the ball and scoring is just a little part of what the game of basketball is. I could’ve been better in areas, getting teammates open, getting assists, on the defensive end. It sucks not making shots, but there’s more to the basketball game than that.”
Hokies in attendance seemed relieved when the final buzzer sounded, signaling the end of FAU’s thrashing. It was a depressing afternoon for those involved, one that originally started with promise after Tech played so well against Boise State and Iowa State on Thursday and Friday, respectively. After the first 16 minutes, it felt like the Hokies and Owls would trade baskets for 40 minutes in a game that reached the 80s.
Instead, while Florida Atlantic scored 84 points, the Hokies couldn’t eclipse 50. Sean Pedulla joined Cattoor in scoring 11 points, but no one else reached double figures. Lynn Kidd was next with nine points (4-of-8) while Mylyjael Poteat contributed six (2-of-3).
For the most part, Virginia Tech got the opportunities it wanted from deep — “I thought we did [get decent looks] in the first half,” Young said — but didn’t get them down.
“They did get a couple of looks in the first half that were clean and open,” Florida Atlantic coach Dusty May said of Tech’s offense, “but when you switch and get them out of their system a little bit, they’re not as comfortable because their system’s so good. So I do think we defended really, really well, about 90 percent of those possessions, and then the other 10 percent, I think they were kind of looking around to see where our guys were coming from and contesting from because they didn’t give up on any plays.”
A great example of that was a corner 3-pointer from Cattoor with 6:39 remaining in the first half that appeared wide open at first. But 7-foot-1 center Vladislav Goldin closed out at the last second and blocked the shot out of bounds.
It was obvious that the offensive frustration bled over to the defensive side, and FAU shot 65 percent in the second half. In some ways, it felt like a frustrating video game that would result in most people turning off the console. Tech made silly errors at times that felt out of the ordinary.
“Just the little things, mental errors that you can’t commit in a championship game on a Sunday like this,” said Cattoor of what went wrong. “Taking care of the ball, taking good shots, making sure we’re getting back on defense. Little stuff like that adds up in a game and it can slip away real quick.”
The Hokies and Owls were almost direct opposites, the former struggling while the latter succeeded. Four players finished in double figures for Florida Atlantic, led by Alijah Martin’s 17. Goldin had 14 (7-of-7 FG) while Johnell Davis scored 12 and Bryan Greenlee had 10.
Unlike the loss to South Carolina in Charlotte two weeks ago, Tech just didn’t have it. The players seemed completely out of the game as it wore on, not unusual when shots don’t fall. But the margin quickly grew from 15 points to 30.
Young got some of his bench players into the game down the stretch. Rechsteiner hit the aforementioned three and played 10 minutes. Fellow true freshman Jaydon Young played five, missing his lone 3-point attempt, while John Camden knocked down a trey as the clock winded down. Seven-footer Patrick Wessler, the redshirt freshman center, also played his first collegiate minutes and knocked down a free throw.
“Every minute they’re on the floor is beneficial,” Young said.
Young did not have an update afterwards on MJ Collins, who took a hard fall with 4:29 remaining and had to be helped to the bench.
Virginia Tech has to quickly flip the page ahead of its road trip to Auburn on Wednesday (9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN2). The Tigers are No. 16 in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings as of Sunday night and are a top-30 team on both ends of the floor. It’ll be the first meeting since December 1999.
“We’re going to have to [flush this game from memory],” Cattoor said. “Auburn’s a tough team. Win or loss, we were going to have to do that regardless. You turn the page and we’re going to get back to Blacksburg and we’re going to have two good practices and be ready for them on Wednesday.”
Box Score: No. 19 Florida Atlantic 84, Virginia Tech 50