Virginia Tech Hokies vs Miami Hurricanes Basketball Recap

Virginia Tech 72, Miami 68

It won’t make up for the dark and haunting memory of the 2010 ACC basketball season, but at least for one day, Virginia Tech gained a bread crumb of redemption against a nemesis from South Florida.

Coach Frank Haith’s Miami Hurricanes suffered yet another close loss in their 2011 campaign, this time at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va., to the Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Hurricanes are winless on the road in ACC play, and they fell to 1-6 in the league; the last four of those six losses have been by two, three, or four points. The Sunday afternoon encounter marked an important win for coach Seth Greenberg’s Hokies, pulling them above .500 in ACC play at 4-3.

Virginia Tech has a lot of work to do in the weeks ahead; the wafer-thin ACC doesn’t offer very many opportunities for quality wins. Only Duke is ranked in the top 25 and possesses any kind of chops on a national level. The second-place team in the conference is a North Carolina club that’s a shadow of its former self and has a long way to go to punch an NCAA Tournament ticket. Virginia Tech won’t gain a ton from this win over Miami, but at least it makes 2010 a little less difficult to bear.

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How miserable did Miami make Virginia Tech’s life last winter? The Hurricanes split in the regular season with the Hokies, but then, in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament, the 12th-seeded Canes stunned the fourth-seeded Hokies in Greensboro, North Carolina. At the time, the bad loss for Virginia Tech was seen as an event that was merely going to reduce the Hokies’ seeding. However, when a lot of NCAA Tournament bids got “stolen” due to upset winners in conference tournaments (New Mexico State, Houston, Saint Mary’s, Washington, and others), Virginia Tech was one of the last three teams left out of the Big Dance. Miami had ruined everything, so one can better believe that Virginia Tech was out for blood on the last Sunday of January. The Hokies didn’t get a blowout, but they did notch a win to move upward in the standings.

The game was very close for the first 15 minutes; with Virginia Tech leading by three with four minutes remaining before using an 11-4 run to take a 40-30 lead at the half. The 10 point lead would be the largest of the game. The Hokies hit 58.3 percent of their field goals for the half to the ‘Canes 47.6 percent. Miami led the battle of the board 13 to nine. Outside shooting was a premium, with 13 of 24 made field goals from 3-point range.

Miami closed the gap to seven, and it remained in the five to ten-point range for most of the second half until Virginia Tech’s Erick Green was called for a rare 10 second violation with four minutes remaining and the Hurricanes pulled within four. Miami got within a point, but never could get closer, and trailing by two with under a minute to play, UM’s Adrian Thomas was unable to connect on either of two wide-open 3-point attempts that would have given the Hurricanes the lead.

Jeff Allen had a standout game for the Hokies with 18 points (seven of 12 3-pointers) and 11 rebounds, followed by Green with 15 and Malcolm Delaney with 14.

Durand Scott led all scorers with 21 points for the Hurricanes, including seven of 13 3-pointers. Malcolm Grant and Garrius Adams had 14 and 11 points respectively for Miami.

Virginia Tech bagged one scalp, but the Hokies have to do a lot more to make this win become fully meaningful in due time.

By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer