Virginia Tech trailed No. 4 Duke by six with four minutes remaining but couldn’t get over the hump in its 72-58 loss in snowy Blacksburg on Saturday.
“Credit Duke,” Tech head coach Mike Young said. “They came in here and played a good ball game. We had a good plan. Cut it to six on a couple of occasions, and we couldn’t get a timely shot down. We had good shot after good shot. You’ve got to step to the plate and you’ve got to get a big one down, and we couldn’t do that today.
“Duke certainly had something to do with that. They’re good defensively and Jon [Scheyer] started switching everything and we still had good shots, but couldn’t make the big one to cut it to four, three, whatever. We had our chances and we let it off the hook.”
The Hokies (16-7, 5-5 ACC) trailed by as many as 16 in the first half and went nearly five minutes without a bucket, but they ended the half on an 11-4 run to pull within 40-31 at intermission. They were better in the second half and threw a few punches at the Blue Devils (20-1, 9-0), but they needed a bit more in the end. Duke ended the game on a 10-2 run.
“It’s tough, but I thought we played really hard,” Tech forward Amani Hansberry said. “A lot of passion, a lot of heart. We just couldn’t make a shot. I think we shot like 26 [percent] from three. I think we’ve got a way better chance if we just shoot like over 35 percent. But we got the guys who we wanted to take those threes taking threes, so we live and die by it, it is what it is.”
The Blue Devils dominated the box score. They shot 52.5 percent overall (31-of-59), and though they were just 5-for-21 (23.8%) on 3-point looks, they made 26 of their 38 2-point shots (68.4%) and outscored Tech 46-24 in the paint and 16-6 on second chances.
“They’ve got good players and good passing,” Young said, “and they put you in some actions that give you heartburn. Not often you see an inverted ball screen, a guard onto a post player, [Cameron] Boozer. We had worked on it and worked on it, it’s difficult. It’s not something you see very often.”
Tech improved on the defensive end in the second half, limiting Duke to just 1-for-10 from three — the lone make was from Cameron Boozer with 90 seconds remaining to ice things — and 13-for-30 overall (43.3%), a large difference from the 62.1 percent clip it made in the first half (18-for-29).
“I think we just cut up the grit and intensity,” Hansberry said. “The fans helped us a lot too. But we rotated a lot well, kind of helped up a lot in the first half and gave up a lot of lobs. Think we cleaned that up more in the second half, but overall, I think it was really just our grit on the ball, our intensity overall.”
At the same time, the Hokies had some stretches of offense in the second half where they appeared to be heating up and making a push. They started 4-for-9 from deep as Jaden Schutt buried two and Ben Hammond and Hansberry each got one down. However, they missed their final six looks from the outside — five of which occurred when trailing by eight.
Even when they pulled within 62-56 with 6:10 left, they failed to capitalize. Neoklis Avdalas tried a cross-court lob towards the baseline to Tobi Lawal, who had a mismatch in the post, but it flew over his head and out of bounds. Hansberry pulled Avdalas aside after that play.
“I told him to use his smarts,” Hansberry said. “You can’t feed the post at the slot. I said, ‘It’s a mismatch, but other guys are pulled trying to have his back, so keep moving the ball, we’ll create more advantages.’ I mean, we got a lot of time on the shot clock, I think it was like in between 15 and 20 seconds, so I just told him, ‘I know you see the play, but create other advantages for other people, especially when you’ve got the five on you, too. You’ve got a mismatch yourself.’”
After Patrick Ngongba missed a tip-in on the other end, Tech had two looks that didn’t fall, and then Boozer drove to the rim and was blocked by Lawal, but the officials whistled for a foul. He made his two free throws to push the lead to eight, and the Hokies never captured the momentum again.
“We had some great possessions,” Young said. “We cut it to nine at the half, had the ball coming out, had a good shot and missed. I’ve got a really good team, they fight like hell, and I thought we could find our way back; we did. I thought we could get over the hump; we did not. I thought we’d find a way to win; obviously, we didn’t.”
Hansberry was excellent, knocking down four 3-pointers and making eight of his 13 shots en route to a team-high 20 points. He stayed out of foul trouble, too, only picking up one personal. Jailen Bedford (12 points) and Hammond (11 points, five rebounds, three steals) joined him in double figures.
“I hope my pleading, begging, beseeching him to please stop fouling unnecessarily resonated with him over the last couple of days,” Young said of Hansberry. “… Duke, they want to sit back in the paint with the opposite big and take away any backcuts and lobs, and Amani stepping out there and getting those four down was critical. We’ve got to get some other guys ringing the bell from three, and I know we will.”
Lawal was quiet offensively, though, with just four points and four rebounds, but he tallied three steals and two blocks. Avdalas also had another rough game, to the point that students booed when he left the court for the final time and cheered loudly when Bedford replaced him with 4:07 to play.
“We bring him along,” Hansberry said of his message to Avdalas during this rough patch. “I think the crowd booed him today. I’m not sure why, I thought he played good today. I tell him every game I love him, I’ve got his back. When he’s down, I make sure I pick him up, but I always remind him when he’s up, never too high, never too low. He’s still a kid, he’s still growing up, but he’s a really talented kid, and I think by the end of the season he’s going to be a completely different player than he was coming into the fall.”
The freshman from Greece has struggled in January, particularly over the last five games. He’s averaging 9.3 points and 4.6 assists this month while shooting 31.2 percent from the field (29-for-93) and 14.6 percent from three (6-for-41), but it’s been highlighted as of late.
“I think the pace here is a lot faster than what it is overseas, and the physicality as well, so I think he’s just getting acclimated,” Hansberry said.
He’s 11-for-51 (21.6%) overall and 2-for-22 (9.1%) from long range over the recent five-game stretch while averaging 6.8 points and 4.0 assists.
“Such a difference-maker with his passing,” Young said of Avdalas. “Had a bad one to Tobi down on the baseline, I think down six. Needed a good possession there. He had the mismatch; the ball’s got to find the mismatch, you can’t try to thread the needle with it. He’s doing it from this side, back over there, down to the short corner, and Tobi can struggle with that catch. Amani catches everything, and we mishandled it, and that was a turnover we could ill afford. …
“He needs to see a couple go in. A couple things mechanically that we’re working with him. We’re not backing away. We’ve all seen the kid be really, really good, and he’s in a dark place here a bit. Still passing the ball great, still in some very good places offensively, his passing and his ball handling are terrific. We’ll get through it with him.”
Regardless of Avdalas’ play, the Hokies had opportunities to turn the tide against the Blue Devils but failed to do so, missing nine of their final 12 field goal attempts. Meanwhile, Duke received enough contributions from guys outside of Boozer, who posted 24 points (9-for-12), eight rebounds and five assists.
“The best thing I can say about that kid is he plays the right way,” Young said of Boozer. “… He is an elite basketball player, but by gosh, if he sees a double team, he’s going to make the right pass. He does an exceptional job of recognizing double teams, catches the ball off the block a lot, turns and faces, or looks over that top shoulder to see how he’s going to be defended. … He is an elite passer, and he throws lasers. Those aren’t lollipops he’s putting back there.”
In the frontcourt, Maliq Brown and Ngongba totaled 20 points and eight rebounds while shooting 9-for-17, and they each knocked down a first-half trey when Tech focused on Boozer and left them open at the top of the key. They entered the day a combined 7-for-32 from three on the year.
On the wing, Isaiah Evans chipped in points but was an uncharacteristic 0-for-4 from behind the arc. Cayden Boozer, Cam’s twin brother, added six points. And arguably the most under-the-radar contribution came from Caleb Foster, who had been dealing with an illness and did not practice on Friday but toughed it out in Cassell Coliseum. He recorded seven points, a career-high seven boards and four assists in 26 minutes.
“Caleb was incredible,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer said. “He didn’t practice yesterday, he wasn’t with the team, and if you asked me, I felt he was going to play all along because that’s his mindset as a junior in our program and the competitor that he is, like he never runs away from anything. But I was concerned when I saw the look on his face.
“He got some rest, and the mindset was to play the whole time. I’m just proud of him. I thought the rebounding was huge, the three offensive rebounds, just coming up with some loose balls, and then he just steadied us on offense. Played within himself, he knew he didn’t have his best stuff in tonight’s game, but the ability to be on and off the ball, I’m just so proud of him. He was a big-time competitor and definitely set the tone for us tonight.”
Virginia Tech is off this week before hitting the road to Raleigh for a Saturday clash at NC State (16-6, 7-2), which has won four straight. It’s a good time for a reset, especially with Tyler Johnson returning from a foot injury after being on the shelf for a month.
“I’m very excited to get Tyler back,” Hansberry said. “He’s a real glue guy and has the potential to be a star, and that’s really scary, especially as a sophomore. I think we gain another good defender on the wing, especially when we face kind of like those 6-5 guards that are really physical getting downhill. I think it’ll change the dynamic of our team.”
Box Score: No. 4 Duke 72, Virginia Tech 58