Hokies Ride Strong Second Half In 65-39 Victory Over Radford

By Carter Hill

Staff Writer

November 16, 2021

BLACKSBURG — Cassell Coliseum was dead. It had been a lifeless performance by Virginia Tech. There was no real energy in the building.

And then all of a sudden, Storm Murphy was waiting to penetrate on the right wing. Two Radford defenders crashed, hoping to subdue the Wofford transfer. Murphy, then as smooth as silk, slipped the rock in between the legs of guard Josiah Jeffers, and lobbed it up to the charging Justyn Mutts.

Approaching the rim, Mutts picked the pass straight out of the air, tomahawking the ball down with his right hand in an attempt to blow the roof off of the near-60 year venue.

That’s when life was sucked back into the Hokies (3-0), and they used that momentum to overcome a sluggish first half en route to a 65-39 victory over the Highlanders (1-2) in a New River Valley showdown.

It was about as ugly as a first twenty minutes could’ve gone for head coach Mike Young and company.

At the intermission, Tech was shooting just a mere 35% from the field, 25% from three, and had surrendered seven turnovers; many of them leading to fastbreak points for Radford.

The Hokies still led 25-18, but a sleepy first half from both sides left a lot to be desired in the second period of play.

“As tough and as connected as we were defensively, I thought we were that disconnected and soft offensively,” Young said regarding his team’s first half performance following coaching in his 600th career game. “I (wasn’t) real pleased in that regard.”

“(We had to) realize that we were making mistakes at halftime,” Murphy added. “We had to adjust and really had to talk to the team about waking up a little bit...we can’t be having those turnovers.”

That’s something Tech never really corrected on Monday evening, as the Hokies finished with a whopping 15 turnovers, much to the chagrin of those in the locker room.

“That’s going to cost us this season,” Murphy continued. “Virginia Tech’s not supposed to be a sloppy team.”

“We were sloppy, we were careless, attention to detail was not what I expected from our bunch tonight,” Young explained. “We’ll be better on Thursday.”

The third-year head coach couldn’t have scripted a better opponent to coach against career contest No. 600.

The 58-year old grew up going to games inside of Cassell Coliseum. But he resided across the river in nearby Radford, graduating as a letterman from Radford High School, and eventually working his way into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

At one point, he even spent a season on the Highlanders’ bench in the late-1980’s, and over 30 years later, he coached against a school he grew up minutes away from right in the backyard of Young’s childhood home.

A school in which his cousin, Robert Lineburg, currently sits as the Athletic Director. A school that boasts a fellow Radford High grad and a former assistant of Young’s, Darris Nichols as their new head coach. His brother Shane as well, who played for Young at Wofford and another former assistant of the head Hokie.

But most importantly, he coached against a school inside the place that sparked his love for college basketball. With the whole community watching these two New River Valley natives put on the whistle against each other for each of their hometown teams.

“They’re family,” the Tech head coach said about the Nichols brothers. “Thrilled that they’re at Radford, those guys are going to do a great job. That basketball program is in good hands for the foreseeable future. It was a lot of fun, I think the absolute world of both those guys.”

The feeling was mutual.

“If you stay in (coaching) long enough, you’re going to play against your friends a lot,” said the head coach of the Highlanders. “I consider him family, it was special.”

The night wasn’t about Mike Young though, if you’d ask him.

It was about his players, about his team. And while they didn’t even scratch the surface of how they’ve performed in earlier outings against Navy and Maine by shooting just 43%, there still were some bright spots as Virginia Tech continues to navigate the weaker side of their non-conference campaign.

Murphy totaled a season-high 17 points, and looked unstoppable from three-point range all evening long.

“He works at it,” Young said about his starting point guard. “I’ve been with him his first two years. I know what he’s capable of, he had a good look about him. He was quite good (this evening).”

The Tech defense was solid again, holding Radford to just 39 points, the first time the Highlanders had been held to under 40 points since November of 1998.

What stood out to Young?

“Our length and strength. And then contesting shots, I thought we were quite good in that area throughout the game. I thought we guarded pretty well,” he said. “We’ve shown what we’re capable of (defensively)...we’re going to be good in that regard, and probably going to be there a little bit quicker then I thought maybe possible.”

Storm Murphy thinks there’s still a lot of work to do on that side of the ball.

“There were a lot of open shots that they just missed,” he said.

“We weren’t there, we weren’t closing out, we gave them way too many feeds in the post, miscommunication, not good in transition defense. While it may seem like they didn’t shoot well, I think Radford has more to do with that than we did.”

A little harsh on themselves after giving up south of 40 points? It’s a no from Justyn Mutts.

“I mean, don’t you have to, to be great?”