Virginia Tech men’s basketball dropped its regular-season finale on Saturday at No. 11 Clemson 65-47.
The Hokies, who will compete in the ACC Tournament on Tuesday vs. Cal (4:30 p.m. ET), finished 8-12 in the league in a five-way tie for ninth place. They were ultimately second in that group behind Virginia, good for the No. 10 seed.
In Littlejohn Coliseum against the Tigers (26-5, 18-2 ACC), who posted the second-best conference record with Louisville, Tech struggled in the first half and couldn’t make up that ground in the second.
Though both squads shot 47 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes, Clemson doubled the Hokies’ field goal attempts (34 to 17) and led 35-20 at the break. Turnovers were the difference, a common theme for this year’s Tech team that had a league-high 389 turnovers, 108 more than the lowest team (Duke).
The miscues showed up again in the Palmetto State against a stout Tigers team that forces them in bunches. Tech gave it away 14 times in the first half, nine of which were Clemson steals, and things slowly unraveled. It had 23 for the game.
“That’s been a sore spot for my team all year,” Hokies head coach Mike Young said afterward. “We don’t handle the ball worth a damn, we don’t pass very well and if you don’t take care of the ball, we had 14 turnovers at the half, just unconscionable numbers for a Virginia Tech team. That’s kept me up at night. …
“[Clemson] had us so pushed out on the floor. They contest everything, and not just Virginia Tech. They contest everything with North Carolina and the rest of them. They’re physical, they get after you, they’re uncomfortable to play against, and I admire that.”
A Ben Burnham jumper pulled Tech within 11-9 at the 14:47 mark, but the Tigers ripped off two separate 8-0 runs to push the margin to double digits. Even with forward Tobi Lawal back in the fold after missing the last two games, the Hokies never found an offensive rhythm.
Most of Clemson’s success on that end came inside. Though it’s a pretty balanced team and its 37.8 percent clip from 3-point range ranks 20th in the country and third in the ACC, it couldn’t buy a basket, making just three of its 20 attempts.
However, it bossed Tech on the interior to the tune of 44 points in the paint, 28 of which came in the first half.
“Just hard, downhill people,” Young said of Clemson’s attack. “They got us behind some things, which allowed [Ian] Schieffelin and [Viktor] Lakhin to get on top of our post players. We’d have to hold on to a hedge or a help a little too long and now they’re whacking you in there with a duck-in. And let’s be honest: Chase [Hunter] and [Jaeden] Zackery, they’ve got some guys that can put it on the floor and get places with it.”
Lakhin was Clemson’s centerpiece. He posted 16 points and seven rebounds on 7-of-13 shooting and has been a monster in the paint all year. The Hokies faced the Cincinnati transfer two years ago in the NIT when he was with the Bearcats and he posted nine points and eight rebounds.
“I go back to my admiration for Brad [Brownell] and his staff with what they’ve done with [Lakhin],” Young said. “We played him two years ago when he was at Cincinnati. … He’s a much more complete player here. Blocks shots, step out and make a three. He’s physical as all get out in the post. He’s got a really high basketball IQ. He’s a really, really good basketball player and that anchor in the middle has certainly benefited [them].”
The Tigers weren’t phenomenal offensively — “I don’t think they had their best stuff today,” Young said — but they didn’t need to be. Tech held Hunter and Schieffelin, the team’s two leading scorers, to a combined nine points on 4-of-13 shooting, yet it couldn’t overcome its early deficit.
Brandon Rechsteiner and Jaydon Young led the Hokies with 11 and 10 points, respectively, and drained five of their eight treys. Burnham, a native of Fort Mill, S.C., and a College of Charleston transfer, had seven points and seven boards in his return to the Palmetto State.
Mike Young wasn’t sure how much Mylyjael Poteat and Lawal would play given their recent injuries and the ACC Tournament fast approaching, and though they combined for 38 minutes, they had just seven total points. Poteat made his lone shot attempt but had a team-worst five turnovers; Lawal had four giveaways and was just 2-of-7 from the field, including 1-of-4 from the foul line.
The bright spot down low was Patrick Wessler, who had the Hokies’ best plus-minus at minus-four. The redshirt sophomore from Matthews, N.C., was a perfect 3-of-3 from the field, which featured a nice hook shot with his left hand over the 6-foot-11 Lakhin, while corralling five boards and swatting two shots.
“He comes to work every day, he’s stayed the course,” Young said of Wessler. “He’s hung in there and he had another good game today. I could count very few times when I walked out of the arena, home or away, and thought he didn’t play a good ball game. He’s strung a number of good basketball games together for our team, I’m quite proud of him.”
The Hokies have a quick turnaround before clashing with Cal in the ACC Tournament in the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C., on Tuesday (4:30 p.m. ET). They’re the No. 10 seed while the Golden Bears are the No. 15 seed.
Virginia Tech beat them 71-68 in Berkeley on Jan. 11, a game it led by 22 points — including a 42-23 margin at intermission — before the Cal stormed back and made it close late.
Mark Madsen’s squad lost 112-110 at Notre Dame on Saturday afternoon in four overtimes, paced by Jeremiah Wilkinson’s 36 points. It also yielded 43 points to Markus Burton. It will not travel back to California before playing the Hokies in Charlotte, and it’s lost seven of its last eight games.
Should Tech win, it’ll play seventh-seeded Stanford in the second round, who it lost to by 11 in Palo Alto in January but led for nearly 30 minutes.
Box Score: No. 11 Clemson 65, Virginia Tech 47
ACC Tournament Bracket: Link