Virginia Tech fought off a late surge from Georgia Tech to win 71-65 in Blacksburg late Tuesday night.
"It's an ACC win," Hokies head coach Mike Young said. "Move on down the line."
As has been the trend this season, the Hokies (16-6, 5-4 ACC) had a 15-point cushion, 65-50, with 4:26 remaining in the contest. But the Yellow Jackets (11-10, 2-6) fought their way back via an 11-0 run, cut the margin to 67-65 with 19 seconds left and made the Cassell Coliseum crowd sweat.
"I've got the most poised, smart basketball team that I've had in a long, long time," Young said, "and we are anything but poised and smart down the stretch. We'll get better."
Ben Hammond and Jailen Bedford each knocked down two free throws in the final 13 seconds to ice things, but it was another game where Virginia Tech left the door cracked open. Wake Forest, Stanford and SMU prevailed in that spot over the last month; Georgia Tech joined the likes of Cal and Syracuse as teams who came up short.
It almost went the Yellow Jackets' way, though, and the majority of statistics pointed in their direction. They held the Hokies to 33.8 percent from the field (22-for-65) and 27.6 percent from behind the arc (8-for-29) while outrebounding them 38-36. Georgia Tech also shot 43.9 percent overall (25-for-57) and limited Virginia Tech's core trio of Amani Hansberry, Tobi Lawal and Neoklis Avdalas to 6-for-27 combined shooting (22.2%).
"It would be disrespectful for me as a coach, knowing how good of a job that Mike does, to say that they got lucky with these numbers," Georgia Tech head coach Damon Stoudamire said. "But I think that Mike would say, 'Man, for us to win a game and we shot 33, 27 and got outrebounded.' ... I think as they go further in the season, this will be a game they look at like, 'Man, that's a game that we dug deep to get.'"
If not for the efforts of Hammond, Bedford and Christian Gurdak, the Hokies would've left the floor kicking themselves.
The team's leading scorer in ACC play at 17.0 points per game, Hammond went for 20 against the Yellow Jackets, making six of his 12 shots, including three of his five 3-pointers, and converting all five free throws. He also corralled three rebounds, dished out three assists and did not commit a turnover in 37 minutes.
"He's just a great point guard," said Gurdak of Hammond, his former teammate at Paul VI. "He sees the floor really well and he makes all the right plays. Sometimes the right play is just go get a bucket, but he's really crafty and fast and has the ball on a string, so it allows him to get past defenders, and he has an amazing touch around the rim."
It's been a mighty jump for the 5-foot-11 Hammond, who averaged just 5.6 points per game last year as a freshman. He came off the bench for 14 of VT's first 17 games this season and provided a jolt, but he's been so effective that Young's put him in the starting lineup for the last five contests.
In those games, he's 28-for-54 (51.8%) from the floor, 13-for-23 (56.5%) from three, 20-for-22 (90.9%) from the stripe and is averaging 17.8 points, 3.4 assists, 2.6 steals, 2.6 rebounds and just 1.4 turnovers.
"He was a table setter," Young said of Hammond's playing style in high school. "But he's really a combo guard now. More two than he is one, but he handles it, he doesn't turn it over, but my gosh, he just scores. He scores in bunches, and he's shooting the fire out of it.
"As a freshman, he's just trying to survive. As a freshman, he's trying to stay on the floor. The best way to do that is take great shots and don't turn the damn thing over, and we had some growing pains together a year ago, but I knew every rep he got would benefit him today. I never thought he'd score the way he's scoring it, but I'm not chastising him either."
Meanwhile, Bedford posted 14 points and four assists while Gurdak had 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting and seven boards. He came off the bench for the first time since Dec. 14 vs. Maryland Eastern Shore — Lawal started instead — and got back to his old productive ways.
Still, everyone was on the edge of their seats as the clock wound down. What was previously a comfortable Virginia Tech lead gradually evaporated as it went the final 6:58 without a field goal. Four of its eight turnovers came in that final stanza, and though it made bank at the foul line — it was 14-for-19 in a second half that featured 26 total fouls — it missed all five of its field goal attempts, four of which were 3-pointers.
"We didn't want to take an early shot clock in the possession, just to get as much time off the clock as we could," Gurdak said, "and sometimes that leaves like not being as fluid or not flowing as well. In the flow of the game, we're scoring 20, 15, 18 seconds on the shot clock, but we're trying to break it down under 10 in that situation."
Georgia Tech mixed up defenses, rolling with a full-court press and a half-court zone, which took the Hokies out of rhythm. Despite how much they've seen pressure packages this year, they had difficulty inbounding the ball, having to burn a timeout once and giving it away twice — and it might've been more, if not for Bedford's acrobatics snagging some passes.
"It's frantic," Young said of GT's defense. "They went to a zone that I haven't seen much of and we put Hansberry in the middle of it. Bedford had a shot over here, he airballs it. We got all spread out and we got hesitant, and that's on me, something we've got to work on."
The more interesting part was how efficient the Yellow Jackets were in the waning moments. They were 7-for-8 from the foul line and made seven straight baskets, four of which came with under two minutes to go — and quickly.
Kowacie Reeves Jr.'s transition layup was seven seconds after a Hansberry turnover. Lamar Washington scored four seconds after Kam Craft's defensive rebound from a corner three Bedford airballed. Baye Ndongo grabbed an Avdalas missed free throw and took it coast-to-coast in four seconds to pull within three. And GT's final make of the game from Washington came nine seconds after Bedford drained a foul shot.
In all, with less than two minutes remaining, Georgia Tech scored four times in a combined 24 seconds. Virginia Tech didn't quite make the Yellow Jackets earn those points.
"Just guarding a little better in the final minutes," Gurdak said. "We're trying not to foul, give them no and-ones, that's the worst thing you can do. So, probably just moving our feet a little bit better, being in the gap without giving up a three. Just sitting down a little more and guarding."
It's safe to say a performance like that won't do the Hokies any wonders on Saturday when No. 4 Duke ventures to Blacksburg. Granted, Stoudamire's club took the Blue Devils to the wire on New Year's Eve, but it was without two key pieces in Akai Fleming and Mouhamed Sylla on Tuesday.
Georgia Tech received an early jolt from Craft, who knocked down three triples in the first two minutes to open a 9-0 lead. It didn't make another trey the rest of the night, though, missing its next 14. Kraft finished with 11 points.
Jaeden Mustaf played a big role, posting 16 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out, while Ndongo posted 14 points and nine boards and Washington added 12 points.
However, Virginia Tech can't afford to continue to close out games in ugly fashion if it wants to secure its place in the NCAA Tournament. While it's currently on the right side of the bubble, three Quadrant 1 games in a row await — vs. Duke, at NC State and at Clemson.
At times, like against Virginia and SMU, the Hokies looked like a team that could beat nearly anyone in the conference. In others, most recently against the Yellow Jackets, they've endured long scoring droughts and stumbled when attempting to put opponents to bed.
Their true DNA may be revealed over the next two weeks.
"ACC is really hard this year," Gurdak said. "Every team's good, and there will probably be a lot of teams to make a tournament in the ACC, so just fighting every game, even in practice. We can't take a day off because every team, even Georgia Tech, is capable of coming in here and getting a win. Duke Saturday, NC State after that. It's a gauntlet of a schedule, but just proud of us of staying above .500, and [hopefully] we can get some cushion on that record as well."