Maddox lifts for game-winning triple, Hokies over Clemson to save season

By Sam Alves

Staff Writer

March 9, 2022

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — It was a play emblematic of Darius Maddox, really. There was nothing flashy — save for a behind-the-back dribble with 2.8 seconds left in overtime — about his one-man show that saved the Hokies’ dying season.

“He does it every other week,” Tech head coach Mike Young said of Maddox’s second game-winner in maroon and orange. “He did it like two weeks ago, so it's old hat for him.”

Yes, Maddox saved the day for the Hokies with a late triple in Miami, Tech’s lone Quadrant 1 win on an almost-full season, but Maddox really saved it this time. His buzzer-beating triple gave the Hokies (20-12) a 76-75 win in the most dramatic fashion.

With 6.7 seconds left in overtime, Maddox, fresh into the game to play with four other guards, caught Nahiem Alleyne’s inbounds pass. He crossed half court with 3.5 seconds on the timer and parlayed that dribble move into a hesitation step to his weaker left hand and rose to fire with just 1.5 on the clock.

And once the shot landed, madness surrounded Maddox.

“Getting rushed by my teammates? Yeah, I loved the feeling,” Maddox said. “It's amazing, especially to win a game in an atmosphere like this is great.”

Cool as can be, his demeanor postgame betrayed that excitement.

So just how confident was Maddox in his chances of prolonging Tech’s season a day further?

“I'm confident along with the rest of our guys,” Maddox said after Young interrupted with his wise-crack.

Clemson, too, was confident in the defense it schemed up before Maddox’s dagger.

“Obviously, we talked about no 3s,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell said. “If they go by us and they make a two, that's fine, but we don't want any 3s.”

The plan was in place to stop Maddox. His strategy was simple — attack the 3-point line — but a tendency-breaker fooled the Tigers with their season on the line.

“Darius is not a guy who's a heavy dribble guy,” Brownell said. “So they threw it into Darius, and we picked him up, but we just kept backing up.

“At the end of the day, they just threw it to a guy, and he dribbled up and shot it over our guy. We needed to be a little tighter, and we shouldn't have kept backing up and kind of let him walk into one. And to his credit, he made it.”

The Hokies did a lot of making in the first half, when they shot 6-for-8 from deep. Storm Murphy made all four tries from long range in a personal 12-0 run, and Hunter Cattoor added two himself.

The Hokies also got 15 points from their bench in the first 20 minutes. David N’Guessan was Tech’s second-leading scorer at the break with seven. He scored off the glass from the paint and added three free throws early. Sean Pedulla was similarly aggressive off the bounce, balancing his four makes from the charity stripe with a pretty floater in the lane. And Maddox added a baseline jumper.

That all-around performance earned Tech a 43-32 halftime lead.

But just as Tech was thriving in the first, it was surviving in the second. Despite leading by as many as 14, 10 turnovers and seven missed free throws opened the door for Clemson (17-16) to hang around before the teams traded buckets back and forth late.

But with his team down one with less than a minute left, Murphy hit an off-balance 3-pointer to take a two-point lead.

“We were talking a lot in huddles trying to just stay together, stay connected, help each other be on the same page; know what defense we're in, know what offense you're running and try to use the clock to our advantage; not panic, weather the storm, know we're still right there,” Murphy said of his team’s mentality with its lead slipping away. “And at the end of the day, we're going to win the game. And thanks to this kid [Maddox,] we did.”

Thanks to a key sequence that flipped the script from Saturday’s 63-59 loss at Clemson to close the regular season, too. Then, Tech lost control of the game at the end of the first half.

Despite leading by nine with 76 seconds left, Tech entered the break with just a three-point advantage. On Wednesday night, the Hokies led by nine with 2:14 in the half. They entered the break up 11, needing every ounce of that edge to make it to overtime.

And in overtime, Tech needed just that one shot from Maddox to squeeze more hope from a season still hanging by a thread.

“I've said it to…others, he scores the ball so easily and picks his spots,” Young said. “I couldn't tell you the last time he took a shot and I thought it was a bad shot. He's one of those [players] that has an innate ability to make a play with the ball in his hands off the bounce, catch it and shoot. He's a good one. Glad he's a Hokie.”

"But having said all that," Young later said, "we're luckier than hell."