Turnovers, Late Defensive Lapses Down Hokies in ACC Opener

Despite their best showing of the season, the Hokies came up short in a 64-59 heartbreaker against Pitt. Virginia Tech led for 31 minutes of the game, but couldn’t hold on down the stretch.

Virginia Tech played a great first half, entering the locker room with a 36-28 lead. The Hokies shot the ball well and prevented Pitt’s offense from getting rolling early. The Hokies continued to play well in the second half, maintaining their lead until 50 seconds left in the game, but made key mistakes in crunch time that proved too difficult to overcome. Led by sophomore Jaland Lowe, Pitt ended the game on a 15-3 run. Virginia Tech is now 81-22 under Mike Young when leading at halftime.

As we noted in our preview for this game, Virginia Tech had to find a way to play complimentary basketball. For most of the contest, the Hokies did just that. Until a little under five minutes left to play, Virginia Tech shot close to 50% from the field. Tobi Lawal and Jaden Schutt scored 16 and 14 points, respectively. The Hokies’ ball movement was solid, notching 13 total assists. The Hokies largely played sound defense, holding the Panthers to 40% shooting from the field and 22% from three, and forced 12 turnovers.

Not surprisingly, Pitt guard Ishmael Leggett scored 17 points and Jaland Lowe led the Panthers in scoring with 19 points of his own. It was in the final stages of the game that Virginia Tech showed flashes of the team that lost five straight non-conference games for the first time since 1924. 

Familiar issues plagued Mike Young’s team late in the game. Virginia Tech turned the ball over 17 times on the day and surrendered 17 points as a result. At several points in the second half, the Hokies turned it over on consecutive possessions, allowing Pitt to convert easy points to cut into Virginia Tech’s lead. Although Virginia Tech managed to find an offensive groove for most of the game, late in the second half, Pitt’s defensive pressure picked up considerably, contributing to the Hokies’ offensive struggles in crunch time. 

During Pitt’s game-sealing 15-3 run, Virginia Tech couldn’t find the bottom of the net, coming up empty on four consecutive possessions during this stretch. In such a close game, free throws were at a premium. The Hokies were 5-7 from the charity stripe, including a rare miss from Tobi Lawal with under two minutes to play. Untimely mistakes like these proved decisive in a game that Virginia Tech badly needed to win to halt its current freefall. Pitt was perfect from the free throw line, shooting 12-12. 

Although the game didn’t go the Hokies’ way, they showed considerable improvement in several areas– almost looking like a totally different team– and took a ranked Pitt team down to the wire. If Mike Young can build on his team’s performance, perhaps Virginia Tech can do as he insists they will and "figure things out" before ACC play starts in earnest at the end of the month.