Cavaliers sink hokies with late game heroics

Ryan Wilkes

February 26, 2020

BLACKSBURG, VA - Despite their 15-point halftime lead being quickly erased in the 2nd half, the Virginia Cavaliers (20-7, 12-5 ACC) escaped Blacksburg with a 56-53 victory over Virginia Tech

It was a tale of two halves for Virginia Tech (15-12, 6-11 ACC). The Hokies were outscored 26-11 in the first half before completely flipping the script, outscoring the Cavaliers 42-30 in the second frame of action.

“We shoot 20 percent in the first half and we’re miserable going down 15,” Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young said postgame. “We had great shots in the first half, and we had the same shots in the second half that we had in the first, but we just happened to get the second half down.”

Despite being nearly impenetrable in the first half, the Virginia defense found themselves against the wall early in the second half after the Hokies came out firing on all cylinders.

“We didn’t play very good second half defense and I want to credit Virginia Tech,” Virginia head coach Tony Bennett said. “They had a terrific second half… they really battled, and I didn’t think we were as sharp as we needed to be.”

After the Hokies made a 12-4 run with less than six minutes to play, Tech took a three-point lead with 3:31 to play. The Cavaliers pulled the lead back, though, leading 53-51 with two minutes remaining.

Three missed shots and a UVa turnover later and the Hokies called timeout with 22 seconds to play, still trailing by two. Tech drew up a play that got Tyrece Radford to the rim for the tying layup with 11 seconds to go.

Enter Kihei Clark.

The Virginia guard put a dagger into all Hokie fans hearts as he drilled a smooth step back three with 2.2 seconds left to send the Cavaliers home with a win.

“Sometimes we call timeouts and sometimes I decide not to and thank goodness I didn’t,” Bennett said. “Sometimes it’s just better to let a guy get momentum and attack and he backed the guy up and what a beautiful three… he [Clark] is a winner.”

Clark finished with ten points and six assists for Virginia, including the game winning shot.

With the loss, Tech drops their third straight game, falling to 15-13 and 6-11 in conference play. They head to Louisville to take on the 11th ranked Cardinals on Sunday.

As for Virginia, they’ve taken four out of the last five games to improve their resume for that highly coveted spot in the NCAA tournament. They return home Saturday for a primetime heavyweight battle against the Duke Blue Devils with third place in the ACC on the line.