As MJ Collins approached the free throw line with 12 seconds remaining and his team up six, he proved a potentially valuable lesson for the Hokies moving forward. Winning in style isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. Such was the case for Virginia Tech in the Hokies' 75-68 victory over Louisville in Tech’s ACC opener, improving to 6-3 on the season.
“We needed a shot of confidence, I saw a team that has lacked that,” Mike Young said postgame. “The sun will come up tomorrow and we have a lot to look forward to so lets start playing better basketball and doing it with great urgency and energy.”
Virginia Tech came out of the gate on the struggle bus, as they took nearly an entire first half to get going offensively. It took the Hokies over eight minutes to crack into double figures as a team. In that span, Tech couldn’t buy a three-point shot until Hunter Cattoor hit one from downtown with 11 minutes to go in the first half.
From that period on, Tech performed better offensively, including an 8-2 run to close the first half down just 31-30. The momentum established carried on into the second half, where Tech started off with an 8-0 run. In totality, from the end of the first half through the beginning of the second, the Hokies put together a 16-2 run which jolted the entire team into action.
“We go with Hunter, MJ and Tyler and cut the deficit back. That was a significant part of the game. Then we had a nice start to the second half. They call a timeout at 18:09, those little periods of time flip how the game goes from there.” Young said.
Through the latter 20 minutes of basketball, Virginia Tech outscored Louisville 45-37 and played better basketball on both ends. This trend was in large part due to the breakout of MJ Collins. The sophomore guard soared past his previous career of 12 points against Notre Dame last season with 20 points to lead the charge offensively against the Cardinals.
“We’ve had a couple games now where we didn’t get a lot of offensive punch from that spot and that’s hurtful,” Young said. “We’ve had games where we didn’t get enough from the four spot. We got enough from both the two and the four spots today.”
What was particularly impressive about Collins’ play was his ability to knock down perimeter shots. Collins shot a perfect 3-3 from behind the arc and 5-10 overall plus 7-7 from the free throw line. Headed into this game, Collins had shot poor from three. In fact, he was zero for his first 11 from three this season before Sunday night.
“He hung in there, he was 0 for November from three. It had affected a couple other parts of his game…missed the Auburn game but we had him back on the floor Friday and Saturday and he looked good, said he felt like he could go and thank goodness he did.” Young said.
It felt like after Collins hit his first one, that more buckets might come his way. The Clover, South Carolina native played with lots of confidence and momentum after seeing his first one go in. Collins not only was able to hit outside shots, but he attacked the basket consistently and dished out four assists as a pseudo-point guard at stages of the game.
“Last couple of weeks have been challenging, I’ve been talking to the coaches, my dad and my teammates and they're all telling me I just need to see the ball go into the basket,” MJ Collins said postgame. “I was in a slump in the month of November, but I knew I needed to just keep shooting them and have confidence that they’ll start falling.”
The Hokies shot 43% from the field compared to the Cardinals 40%. However, on the downside, Tech struggled shooting the ball from distance, only knocking in 5-20 from three for the game. Tech hustled more on the glass in the second half, as they held a negative eight rebounding margin through the first 20 but finished the game only being outrebounded by one to Louisville. More importantly, Tech only had one fewer offensive rebound, but still turned that into a 10-5 second chance points advantage.
Despite Collins balling out on the big stage, Tech didn’t get a great game from their point guard Sean Pedulla. The junior had eight points on 2-6 shooting with four turnovers. Cattoor had a ho-hum 12 points but also played fantastic defense. Other rotational pieces like Tyler Nickel, Robbie Beran and Mekhi Long were a combined 3-16, although Beran had some standout moments on defense and Long totaled eight rebounds.
“It’s an aberration and it won’t happen very often but it's pleasant to see that when Pedulla doesn’t have his best stuff,” Young said. “To win in different ways, having Collins stepping up to the plate and getting quality minutes from other guys is good.”
Tech got a fantastic game once again from Lynn Kidd, finishing with 19 points on 8-13 shooting from the field. Kidd has been a big presence down low for the Hokies, and he’s reached double figures in seven games this season, already three more than he had all of last year. Furthermore, Mylyjael Poteat did work as the backup big man. He provided some spark to Tech’s bench unit and finished with seven key points.
“He had some really big plays today that helped us get a kick off the bench. He’s a really good player. I know he will take care of business.” Lynn Kidd said postgame.
Although Tech’s 1-0 in ACC play with the seven point win over Louisville, the Hokies will head back to nonconference play for a few more games before ACC play gets going in full. First on that remainder of games is a tilt next weekend against Valparaiso. The game is inside Cassell Coliseum next Saturday at noon as Tech will look to start a new winning streak.
