Tech Can't Catch Up To No. 13 Miami in 76-70 Loss

By Will Locklin

Staff Writer

February 21, 2023

Isaiah Wong put up 13 points for Miami in the Hurricanes' 76-70 win over Virginia Tech. (Miami Athletics)

BLACKSBURG – With clutch time on the horizon of a 61-58 ballgame, Miami’s Nijel Pack decided to deliver a cold-blooded shot from the edge of the Carilion Clinic logo. Pack sized up Hunter Cattoor on an island and nailed a step-back three to begin the Canes closing run on the Hokies with just over five minutes to go. 

“Pack hit a bomb in the second that was well-guarded. He shot it well beyond the NBA arc and he got it down.” Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young said to reporters postgame. 

Pack’s crowd silencing trey kickstarted a 10-4 run by the 13th-ranked Hurricanes that spanned the 5:20 mark up until 30 seconds to go in the game. The closing run from Miami represented the finishing touches of a 76-70 win for the Hurricanes (23-5, 14-4 ACC) over Virginia Tech (16-12, 6-11) Tuesday night inside Cassell Coliseum. 

“They’re so aggressive and chaotic. … I say that with great admiration and respect. They come at you in waves,” Young said. “I’m disappointed they scored 40 points in the second half, but that’s who they are and what they can do.” 

From the start, Tech knew the challenges of defending Miami’s quartet of excellent guards. Indeed, the Canes heavily relied on fantastic performances from their guards in Pack, Isaiah Wong and Jordan Miller, who combined for 41 points and 53% of Miami’s offense on the night. The best Hurriicane of the night, however, was sophomore forward Norchad Omier. 

“Norchad is a load, he’s averaging four offensive rebounds a game,” Young said. “That’s an unbelievable statistic.” 

Omier was the Canes leading scorer and rebounder with 17 points and 14 rebounds, four offensive boards, in Miami’s offensive showcase against Tech. The offensive rebounding was a big swing stat that landed in the Hurricanes favor. Miami outrebounded Tech 39-31 overall and 14-7 in terms of cleaning the offensive glass. 

“We didn’t get the rebounding from our guards that we typically get and need,” Young said. “They flat out beat us to the ball a couple of times and that hurt us badly.” 

Despite the fact that Tech shot a higher clip from the field at 46.7% to Miami’s 42.2%, and better from three at 33.3% to the Canes’ 31.8%, the Hokies still trailed for the majority of the contest. 

Tech drew first blood on Miami, getting out to a 17-8 lead and forcing coach Jim Larranaga to take an early timeout around the 12 minute mark of the first half. From that point on, the Hurricanes stole the lead from the Hokies two minutes later, and completed a 68-53 run for the rest of the game while not relinquishing their advantage until the final buzzer. 

“Pack and Wong are as dynamic a two-guard punch as there is in our league and maybe even nationally,” Young said. “Then you have a load in the post to deal with as you’re all spread out defensively trying to stop those guards.” 

Conversely, Tech didn’t perform well enough offensively to get the job done, scoring 70 points on subpar shooting splits. Miami is known for being an offensive team, but held the Hokies to just five made baskets across the final six minutes and change of the second half. 

“Exhausting all that energy to get into the offense and when you’re already in the half court it’s exhausting just moving and cutting. That’s how they make it so hard to create offense like we normally do,” Tech guard Sean Pedulla said. 

Tech shot a splendid 50% from the floor in the first half, but only made two shots out of 11 attempts from beyond the three point arc. In the second half, the Hokies turned on their three-point magic, shooting 44% from distance. Their overall field goal percentage dipped down to 44%, though, making it hard to close the gap on the Hurricanes. 

Leading the way for the Hokies was Pedulla, who had himself a team-high 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting and 2-of-9 from three. Cattoor and Grant Basile were the only other two Tech players to reach double figures on the night. 

Basile was an efficient 6-of-12 from the floor but saw limited touches compared to his usual dosage. Cattoor ended up with 15 points coming off five canned triples with six rebounds and four steals. Additionally, Cattoor reached the 1,000 career point mark, making him the 50th Hokie to do so in program history. 

“I got it in high school and never really thought I’d get in college,” Cattoor said. It’s a cool accomplishment and I’m super grateful for it.” 

Young sung the praises of Cattoor’s efforts for not just this game, but for his career that will leave an impact on the Tech basketball program. 

“He’s awesome and he’s tough. Really good again today,” Young said. “Hunter Cattoor has had a great career and been an absolute pleasure to coach.” 

Tech continues its back and forth roller coaster ride of a season with another conference loss, bringing their record to 6-11 in the ACC. They saw positive signs in Saturday's win over Pitt, but failed to carry that momentum on to Tuesday night's affair with the Hurricanes. 

The Hokies will move on and face their third to last regular season opponent this upcoming Saturday night, where they will travel to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face off against the Duke Blue Devils at 8 p.m. ET.