Alleyne, Mutts make it rain in Tech's first conference win

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

January 15, 2022

BLACKSBURG — Nahiem Alleyne stepped back behind the 3 point line and drained a trey to bring Virginia Tech just two points back of Notre Dame seven minutes into the second half. After entering the half with a 10-point lead, it was the slimmest margin the Irish held since the opening two minutes of the game, forcing Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey to call a timeout.

Immediately, Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young shot out to the center court logo, where he met Alleyne, wrapping his arms around his guard’s head for a midcourt hug.

“Man,” Alleyne started, before laughing to himself. “He had never done that before. It really felt good knowing he put that trust in me, knowing that I had put a lot of work [in.] Just goes to show how good of a coach he is.”

The Hokies (9-7, 1-4 ACC) kept up their red-hot shooting for the rest of the half to complete a dramatic comeback over Notre Dame (11-5, 4-2 ACC) in front of an energetic Cassell Coliseum. Forward Justyn Mutts (24 points) and Alleyne (22) powered Tech to its first conference win of the season.

Alleyne’s shooting woes mirrored Tech’s 0-4 start to ACC play, but the Buford, Georgia native was ultra-efficient, scoring on eight of his 10 shots. The junior guard made 4-of-5 triples and balanced the Tech attack with four more buckets off the bounce.

“Good to see Nahiem Alleyne play a good ball game,” Young said postgame. “He’s had some struggles, but I’m gonna hang in there with him, because I know him and I know how hard he works. He’s in the gym all the time. He’s about the right stuff. There’s nobody in this world that wants to see him pop out of it more than he does and I do. I knew it was coming….But he hung in there and stuck with it. I mean, he was awesome today.”

Consider Mutt’s performance another much-needed return to form. After Wednesday’s two-point outing in Charlottesville against Virginia, the directive from Young was to be more aggressive offensively. Mission accomplished on Saturday night.

“He was so assertive and so dynamic,” Young said of Mutts.

As were the Hokies as a whole. They shot 13-for-26 in the first half but trailed by eight at the break due to lackluster defense and tough — maybe even lucky — Irish shot-making. In the second, Notre Dame made just 11-of-29 attempts (37.9%) while Tech made 16-of-23 (69.6%) shots.

So what was the key to Tech’s defensive improvement in the second half?

“Played harder, were more connected,” Young said. “They were uncomfortable. As comfortable as they were in the first half, they were as uncomfortable in the second half, I thought.”

Brey agreed.

“Their physicality is really hard to deal with,” he said. “They’re really, really physical. They’re really a sound defensive team.”

With the minutes waning, Tech still trailed, so it went inside to Keve Aluma (17 points), whose and-one gave the Hokies a chance to tie with just under seven minutes remaining. Instead, thanks to a technical foul assed to Brey, Tech scored five on the possession thanks to two additional free throws from Alleyne.

The Hokies never trailed again.

“I thought the Virginia Tech crowd kept their team believing the whole time,” Brey said to open his presser.

For much of the game, the loudest roar came during the first half under-12 media timeout, when the Virginia Tech football assistant coaches — associate head coach JC Price, specifically — were introduced on the court. But then came the game-sealing sequence.

Notre Dame guard Cormac Ryan, a career 77% free throw shooter, missed two free throws that would have tied the game at 75 with less than a minute remaining.. The Hokies then ran their offense, and Storm Murphy (12 points) hit the dagger, his fourth 3 of the game. It came from nearly the same spot he missed the game-winner from in Charlottesville on Wednesday.

The postgame refrain from strength and conditioning coach David Jackson was fitting, then.

“Every storm starts with a raindrop,” Mutts recalled. “And I feel like now we finally got our feet under us. Now we can make something happen.”