If there was ever a time for the Virginia Tech men's basketball team to pick up a Quad 1 road win, it was Wednesday night at 20th-ranked Clemson. The opportunity was there as the Tigers were coming off a two-game sweep through California last week, and a huge matchup at Duke was looming on Saturday afternoon.
After taking a seven-point lead into halftime, 40-33, the Hokies buckled down defensively in the second half and got stops when needed. They never allowed Clemson closer than five points the rest of the game and pulled away late for a 76-66 victory. The win was massive for the Hokies in terms of the NCAA Tournament, as their hopes were slipping. After the game, Clemson head coach Brad Brownell didn't make excuses for the setback at home.
Clemson coach Brad Brownell makes no excuses in loss to Virginia Tech
It would have been easy for Brownell to blame the ACC for a brutal schedule with a cross-country flight and back before a trip to Durham this upcoming weekend. Instead, he told it like it was; he was making no excuses.
“The story is not that Clemson came back from the West Coast and whatever. We got beat by a good team tonight that outplayed us,” Brownell said. “No excuses.”
“We had a lot of guys for the first time in a long time not play well,” Brownell said. “Too many different guys not playing well on the same day . . . We're one of those teams that we need most of our guys to play well.”
As far as Virginia Tech goes, it was a 40-minute effort that Mike Young has been waiting a long time for. Was it perfect throughout the game? No, but it was a road win against a team that is safely in the NCAA Tournament and fighting for seeding in the ACC Tournament next month. How good were the Hokies offensively? They shot over 50% from the field and behind the arc.
“You score 76 points on the Tigers, you're getting something done,” Young said.
They got a lot done, including a monster road win that may have, at least for now, saved their season.