Hokies Fall at UVA

Virginia Tech hung tough early, but ultimately fell to UVA 73-55 in Charlotteville on Tuesday night.  UVA improved to 18-6 overall and 8-3 in the ACC, while the Hokies dropped to 11-13 and 2-9.

Tech hung tough throughout most of the first half, despite the struggles of Erick Green.  The nation's leading scorer had just one point in the first half, and missed all seven of his field goal attempts.  The Hokies stayed in the game thanks to eight first half points by Marshall Wood, and five more from Marquis Rankin, but the Hoos eventually pulled away to take a 36-23 lead into the break.

The second half was back to normal.  Green went 4-of-10 from the field in the second half, and went 11-of-13 from the free throw line for the game, but couldn't get contributions from his teammates in the second half to keep the game close.  He also had five rebounds, two assists, a steal and a turnover.

Jarrell Eddie didn't start thanks to Saturday's water bottle incident.  Will Johnston got the start and played 28 minutes, scoring three points and grabbing a rebound while finishing with an assist and a steal.  He made one of his two three-point attempts.  Eddie had three points on 1-of-7 shooting in 14 minutes.  Robert Brown started, but scored just two points on 1-of-5 shooting.

In a total of 32 minutes between Brown and Eddie, the Hokies got a total of five points on 2-of-12 shooting, with four rebounds and two turnovers.  As a comparison, walkon guard Marcus Patrick played the final two minutes of the game and finished with four points and one rebound, making both of his midrange jumpers.

Cadarian Raines played very hard for the Hokies, and he finished with six points and seven rebounds, but it was difficult for Tech to get him the ball because of UVA's outstanding packline defense.  The Hoos haven't given up more than 69 points in a game this season.

Freshman forward Marshall Wood led Tech with 8 points and 5 rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench.

The Hokies return to action on Saturday when they travel to Raleigh to take on NC State.  Tipoff is scheduled for 2pm, and the game will be televised by ESPN2.