A day ago, Virginia Tech’s tournament chances were on life support. A huge win over No. 15 Virginia on New Year’s Eve wasn’t enough to overcome a disappointing loss at Wake Forest and blown leads against Stanford and SMU. A late-season win at No. 20 Clemson? That may be enough.
Virginia Tech played perhaps its most complete game of the season on its way to a 76-66 resume-boosting win over Clemson, behind 42 points from the Ben Hammond-Jailen Bedford-backcourt.
The star guards spearheaded the Hokies' (17-8, 6-6 ACC) three biggest runs of the ballgame.
An Ace Bunker and-one gave Clemson (20-5, 10-2 ACC) a 31-29 lead with 3:30 to go in the first half. Bedford quickly responded with an and-one of his own. The following play, Schutt swung it back to Bedford at the top-of-the-key, who got by his man and used a Gortat screen from Lawal to finish the right-handed layup.
The Hokies got another stop and Schutt took advantage of a defensive miscommunication, finding Bedford in the corner for a triple. Nick Davidson responded with a layup, but a Hansberry three to beat the buzzer gave the Hokies a 40-33 lead at the break.
The Tigers cut the Hokies' lead to just three points early in the second half before Hammond came alive. After scoring just two points in the first half and going scoreless on Saturday at NC State, Hammond floated to the corner and potted the triple off a beautiful baseline feed from Hansberry.
Less than 30 seconds later, Hammond took and outlet pass coast-to-coast for a scoop layup. Two free throws from Bedford gave Tech its first double-digit lead of the game at 49-39 with 15:45 to go.
Fittingly, the star backcourt closed out the win for the Hokies. Hansberry drew the double team on the left block and kicked out to Bedford, who nailed his fourth and final triple of the evening to put the Hokies up 72-64 with 2:08 remaining. Four Hammond free throws sealed the deal for Virginia Tech.
The Hokies put together their best offensive performance in some time, shooting 52% from the field, 52% from three on 11 made triples and 100% from the stripe on 13 attempts.
“We tweaked some things (offensively),” said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. “We thought the ball was sticking in too many places…We had a better flow to our offense (tonight).”
Tobi Lawal joined Hammond and Bedford in double figures with 12 points and nine rebounds. After making just four triples all season, he went 2-for-2 from long range tonight.
Avdalas couldn’t find his shot beyond five feet from the cup, but scored eight points and registered four assists - a number that doesn’t do him justice for the great passes that got foiled by missed layups. Hansberry had a quiet night with seven points and seven rebounds.
The Hokies locked in defensively in the second half, holding the Tigers to just 37% from the floor and 27% from deep. After only taking one first half free throw, Clemson relied on its shooting from the charity stripe in the second half, taking 17 but only making 10.
It was a three-man army for Clemson as Carter Welling, Nick Davidson, and Ace Buckner combined for 51 points. The rest of the team shot just 5-for-26 from the floor. Leading scorer RJ Godfrey, who was often guarded by Bedford, managed just six points.
Virginia Tech has now won twelve ranked games during the Mike Young era - this is one is the first that has come on the road.
“(We) get out of here with a big road win and we needed it bad,” Young said following the game.
The Hokies had fallen into Joe Lunardi’s “Next Four Out” prior to Wednesday's upset victory. Now, they likely return into the projected field.
Virginia Tech returns to Cassell Coliseum on Saturday, February 14th for a 2 p.m. showdown against Florida State (11-13, 4-7), a team that is playing far better than its record shows. Every home game for the rest of the season is essentially a must-win for the Hokies, who have virtually no room for error.
