Hokies grab big lead, don't look back in sweep of Pitt

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

February 8, 2022

BLACKSBURG — After Virginia Tech’s win over Pittsburgh Saturday night, Storm Murphy knew the challenge his team faced with the Panthers on the schedule again in less than 48 hours. Murphy had been in a similar situation at Wofford, playing UNC Greensboro twice in a row.

He said the second game of the back-to-back was in the 30s and 40s and Mike Young tried to prepare the team for a similar situation when Pitt came to Cassell Coliseum on Monday night.

Well, Monday came and Pitt scored in the 40s, but Virginia Tech (14-10, 6-7 Atlantic Coast) had no trouble scoring after the first media timeout en route to a 74-47 beatdown of the Panthers (8-16, 3-10 ACC). The win places the surging Hokies within a game of the .500 mark in conference play and buries the Panthers to last in the league, where the Hokies were just four games ago.

“I know who I have in that locker room and I believe in them and trust them,” Young said of his veteran-led team which is now on a four-game winning streak. “We continued to practice very well. There were some dark days…. I think they had the presence of mind and the maturity to realize that brighter days were ahead. We’ve got to play a little bit better here over the last couple of weeks and you know, quite pleased with them and what has transpired.”

The Hokies started off slow, missing their first five shots and turning the ball over as many times before the first media timeout. They found their groove, though, and scored the game’s next 17 points to take a 17-5 lead they continued to build on.

Keve Aluma scored a game-high 18 points, including the last seven points of the half, which sent the Hokies to the half with the sparse crowd in a frenzy. On Tech’s penultimate possession of the half, Sean Pedulla found Aluma with a beautiful no-look bounce pass in transition for a dunk. Aluma then capped off the half with a pick-and-pop 3-pointer before the buzzer sounded.

“Aluma was special today,” Young said.

For a second straight game, however, Pitt star center John Hugley was not. The 6-foot-9, 280-pound center scored two points for the second time in three nights. This time, his production came off the bench.

Last year against the Hokies, Pitt head coach Jeff Capel benched starting point guard Xavier Johnson, who transferred to Indiana after last season, and he came off the bench at home to drop 32 points on the Hokies.

Capel’s move did not work out Monday. In fact, Tech’s center, John Ojiaki, matched Hugley’s scoring production in the first half and added another bucket in the second half to outscore his counterpart with four points.

“[Battling Hugley in the post] is like wrestling an alligator, and I say that with the utmost respect for John,” Young said. “I just admire Hugley’s game completely.”

Virginia Tech’s offense continued to click in the second half, unlike Saturday night, when its 27-point lead was cut to just three in the final minute.

“[Young] always says we’re going to get shots on the offensive end, it’s just about defense,” Nahiem Alleyne said, explaining the key to keeping the intensity up with a big second-half lead. “Are we going to stop our man? Are we going to let them blow past us?”

The Hokies assisted 20 times on 29 field goals. Freshman point guard Sean Pedulla led the way with a career-high seven assists and zero turnovers over 20 minutes, one more than starter Storm Murphy played. Pedulla was plus-23 while Murphy, who played with a gash on the right side of his face for most of the night, was plus-4, and both guards scored six points.

Tech also shot better than 50% from the floor for the fifth straight game, marking Tech’s best run since joining the ACC in 2004. Pitt, meanwhile, only mustered a 37.5% clip from the field.

Following a historic win at Florida State, the Hokies have handled business, winning three more games against Georgia Tech and now Pitt, two of the three worst teams in the ACC. Tech has some time to rest, with home games over the next 12 days against Syracuse, Virginia and North Carolina upcoming.

“I told them [the team] just a minute ago, “It’s February, man. Every game is huge,” Young said about his message to the team postgame. “This game on Saturday is the biggest game on our schedule; It’s the next game.”