Hokies Go Ice Cold, Falter in 65-57 Loss To North Carolina

By Carter Hill

Staff Writer

February 19, 2022

BLACKSBURG — Fresh off of a Nahiem Alleyne finish at the rim, down 12 points with 14 minutes to play, the Hokies needed a spark and to string together a slew of defensive stops. They only got the latter.

Keve Aluma stole the ball and fired a beautiful outlet pass down to Alleyne, wide open on the left baseline. Clank, off the rim.

Going back the other direction, Leaky Black threw the ball away only for Aluma to fumble it away.

Next, Alleyne drew a charge, and back on offense, Hunter Cattoor hoisted another 3-pointer. It fell short off the front rim.

It was a stretch that encapsulated the afternoon for Virginia Tech, as the Hokies (16-11, 8-8 Atlantic Coast) shot just 5-for-26 (19.2%) from downtown in a devastating 65-57 home loss to North Carolina (19-8, 11-5 ACC). Carolina’s win snapped Tech’s six-game winning streak.

“I thought we got great shot after great shot,” Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young said. “If we were going to go out and play it again and throw the thing in the air, I would take the same shot[s.] We’ve been so free and so impressive offensively, but we had a tough night.”

Entering the contest, the Tar Heels were a stifling 279th nationally in terms of defensive 3-point percentage. Meanwhile, the Hokies, who have continued to play off their strengths from beyond the arc, were second in the nation in 3-point percentage.

The shots were there, they just didn’t fall.

So was Virginia Tech surprised about how today unfolded after a frustrating 40 minutes? It’s safe to say so.

“Honestly, I thought we all had good looks. First half and second half, just wasn’t knocking them down really,” Alleyne confessed. “Nights like this, we just got to drive into the hole and try to get to the foul line,” the Georgia native said. “I mean, I shot 1-for-6, that’s terrible. We shot 5-for-26, 19%...dang.”

The Georgia native almost smiled in disbelief as he gazed his eyes on the stat sheet for the first time since the buzzer sounded.

So what can Young say when the Hokies’ most valuable asset, the long ball, just isn’t hitting?

“The worst thing you can do is to blast ‘em,” the third-year head coach said.

“We’re getting great shots. We’re taking great shots. We’ve got really good offensive players. I am not discouraging anything. Maybe another ball reversal. I thought we had a couple of quick ones, but I thought all in all, we were taking shots from people we wanted to take shots, we just couldn’t get’em down.”

“Some were pretty well-guarded. Some were wide open and we just missed them. We just missed them.”

It’s an overall outing that Young and company will want to forget. Keve Aluma paced the Hokies with 16 points and nine rebounds while Justyn Mutts added 10 points of his own with a couple of strong finishes at the rim.

That was it though in terms of double figure scoring for Virginia Tech. The Hokies got just 14 combined points from Cattoor and Alleyne, as the pair shot just 2-for-12 (16.7%) from beyond the arc. That’s not exactly a recipe for success.

Overall though, Tech held the Tar Heels to just five offensive rebounds, turned them over 15 times and kept Carolina off the free throw line for most of the contest.

Ultimately, though, shots just didn’t go down. Frosting for Young after executing the overall game plan fairly well, right?

“Yeah,” Young said with a sigh. “They had one first half offensive rebound. I thought we were really, really good there. Guards helped us down on [Armando] Bacot and [Brady] Manek. We altered some matchups with Manek because he’s going to ball screen and pop out of that thing. We could get Aluma or Mutts on him.

“I thought we did a very good job there. Just not good enough.”

The opportunity was there for Virginia Tech to secure its seventh-straight victory. The game plan was well-executed after being annihilated on the boards, 43-32, just a little over a month ago in Chapel Hill.

Maybe it was due for a night like this. Maybe it just hit a roadblock after playing so well over the course of the last few weeks. Regardless, the Hokies now find themselves back inside a deep hole in hopes of qualifying for their fifth-straight NCAA Tournament.

Still, the mindset still won’t change for Virginia Tech.

“You know, sometimes in this thing, sometimes in athletics, you walk out of the building scratching your head, and this was one of those evenings for me,” Young said. “It was an unbelievable effort, we just didn’t do enough good things to win. And so, here we are and on the road we go, so let’s play better on Wednesday.”