Winston-Salem, NC - Virginia Tech consistently finds itself in late-game clutch scenarios, and has just-as-consistently come out on top.
On Nov. 8, it outlasted Providence 107-101 in overtime. A couple weeks later it survived a 68-66 slugfest against Colorado State on a missed three at the buzzer. On Dec. 2, Tech went to Columbia and took down South Carolina 86-83 in overtime. That leads us to the two most recent games: an 82-81 overtime win against Elon and a 95-85 triple overtime victory in an instant classic against Virginia.
Saturday, the Hokies' unconvincing style of winning finally caught up to them, falling 81-78 to Wake Forest (10-5, 1-1) in LJVM Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 3.
Just as it looked like the game could be getting away from Virginia Tech (12-3, 1-1), it rattled off a 12-0 run, giving it a 62-58 lead with 7:21 remaining. An Amani Hansberry triple a moment earlier gave Tech its first lead of the game. Wake Forest led for over 30 minutes.
The Demon Deacons responded nicely out of Steve Forbes timeout, tying the game at 69 with 3:42 remaining.
Jailen Bedford, who had already drained five triples on his way to a season-high 25 points, finally misfired from long range. Wake got the rebound and eventually worked it inside to Tre’Von Spillers who finished a beautiful scoop layup, despite tough coverage from Christian Gurdak.
The following possession Wednesday's hero Ben Hammond took a screen from Gurdak and weaved all the way to the cup for a lefty layup to tie it at 71 with 2:06 remaining.
Two Spillers buckets, including an and-one tip in off an offensive rebound offset Hansberry’s top-of-the-key triple to give the Deacons a 76-74 lead with 1:11 left.
The following play, Hammond got to the hoop and missed a contact layup on the right-hand side, but Gurdak was there to collect it and put it back in to even the score at 76. If Virginia Tech could get a stop on the other end, it would give itself a chance to hold for the final shot.
As it turned out, Wake got three opportunities to find nylon as Spillers missed his jumper and Juke Harris rimmed out the tip-in, leading to an all out scramble for the loose ball.
Bedford got his mitts on the rebound, but it was ripped out of his hands and awarded to the Deacons. With a six second difference between the shot and game clocks, Nate Calmese went behind-his-back, stepped back and drilled a three over Hammond’s outstretched arm.
Wake wisely intentionally fouled with a three-point lead, and escaped with the nail-biting win.
Calmese was the star all afternoon, dropping 25 points and seven assists.
“We guarded that last possession as well as we can guard,” said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. “Calmese just rose up (and) made a shot.”
While the plays down the stretch may be more memorable, it was the first half that really doomed Virginia Tech.
It turned the ball over a season-high 14 times…in the first 12 minutes. It finished with 19 turnovers. Avdalas - who was 13th in the ACC in assist/turnover ratio before the game - was responsible for seven of those. He had trouble operating the pick-and-roll against aggressive hedges and active hands surrounding the paint.
Even when the Hokies didn’t turn the ball over, they struggled to knock down shots, hitting below 36% of their field goals and under 30% of their treys in the first half. For context, they shot 60% in the second half.
Just as problematic was the foul trouble. Gurdak picked up a quick three fouls and Hansberry joined him with three after getting hit with a technical foul (leading to a long conversation with Young on the sideline).
With Lawal and Dorn sidelined with injury and his two active bigs in foul trouble, Young resorted to freshman forward Sin’Cere Jones to hold it down at the center position to close the first half.
Although he didn’t shoot well, Jones gave the Hokies solid minutes with his defensive effort and work on the glass. Still, Tech severely missed Hansberry, who ended up fouling out, in his 13 minutes on the bench. With 6-foot-7 Spillers as his matchup for an undersized Wake Forest team, Hansberry did whatever he wanted on the offensive end scoring 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
While it registers as a “good” Quad 1 loss, that is a game Young and his Hokies would have liked to have - especially considering how close they came, despite injuries, foul trouble and overall poor play in the first half.
On the bright side, it bodes well for Tech that Bedford got back on track after a very quiet month on the offensive end. Young also offered some good news on the injury front:
“We’ve got a shot to get Tobi back on Wednesday. That remains to be seen and that’s barring any unforeseen setbacks between now and then.”
This is massive news for a team that can’t afford to lose home games like its upcoming matchups against Stanford and California, given its challenging road schedule.
Virginia Tech returns to the floor on at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 7 as it hosts the Stanford Cardinal (12-3, 1-1).
