Virginia Tech defeats Clemson 66-60 in Acc Opener

Chris Hirons

December 15, 2020

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Keve Aluma had set a screen to Tyrece Radford’s left to move John Newman III out of Radford’s way.

Instead of heading towards the screen, the six-foot-one guard dribbled over to the right, away from Aluma and ran past Newman, who plays on the nation’s second-best defense in terms of KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating.

Radford took one dribble, three steps and raced past Newman, rising up towards the hoop to dunk the basketball. Newman turned and jumped to try to block high flying Radford’s dunk. But it was too late. He wasn’t even close.

Radford threw down the one-handed dunk and fell to the floor before being stopped by the base of the basket. He took a moment to gather himself and then raced down the floor to play defense after extending Virginia Tech’s lead over Clemson 17-12.

“I had it on my mind tonight,” Radford said. “I got the wind knocked out of me a little bit but it fired up my team a little bit.”

The dunk put an emphasis on the Hokies’ first half, where they shot 41.7% overall and 50% from beyond the arc to head into halftime with a 32-27 lead, despite turning the ball over a whopping 11 times.

With the lead the Hokies had in hand entering the second half, Radford guided his team the rest of the way to a 66-60 win over the No. 24 Clemson Tigers in Tech’s ACC opener.

After falling out of the AP Top 25 rankings, the Hokies (5-1, 1-0 ACC) added their second statement win of the season — then No. 3 Villianova two weeks ago was the first. Head coach Mike Young also beat Clemson (5-1, 0-1 ACC) for the third time in as many tries since arriving in Blacksburg a season ago.

“After the loss to the Nittany Lions last week, we really began to study Clemson on Saturday and had three good days of practice,” Young said after the win. “I think all of that led to tonight’s win.”

After Virginia Tech started the second half on a 22-16 run, the Hokies allowed the Tigers to claw back as Al-Amir Dawes, who led the Tigers in scoring with 18, piloted a near-Clemson comeback. With just over two minutes remaining, VT watched its lead dwindle down to five points, then to four, and then all the way down to two with just 25 seconds remaining.

“We are only six games in, we still have a lot to improve on,” Young said. “We gave up a 16-point lead and they started throwing up three’s left and right. We did a great job throughout the first half and early portion of the second half.

“We fouled too much. We will look at the game in its totality and make corrections.”

A week after a 75-55 loss in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge to Penn State, Virginia Tech only shot 18 free throws against the Nittany Lions. And to make matters worse, the Hokies only made nine of those shots.

Against Clemson, Tech made good on its mistakes, lining up to shoot free throws 31 times and converted 25 of them (80.6%).

On the flip side, Clemson took 14 free shots at the line, converting 12 (85.7%).

“I don’t think you have to emphasize making free throws,” Young said. “Making half your fouls is bad and costs you games. We’ve got a good shooting team, we have kids who shoot fouls well. Defensively, we were poor [against Penn State]; we were poor at the foul line.”

Entering the game, the Tigers were only shooting 33% from beyond the arc. Today, while guarding the paint more intensely, the Hokies allowed Clemson to convert 10 of its 19 three pointers after the offense had missed its first six.

Offensively, VT wasn’t much better handling the ball as Clemson forced the offense into 16 turnovers, though only five were committed in the second half. To make up for those turnovers, Virginia Tech dominated the glass, out-rebounding the Tigers 33-25.

In the scoring column, four Hokies scored double-digit points as Radford led the way in scoring with 15, Aluma and Nahiem Alleyne added 13 each and Hunter Cattoor joined in on the scoring party with 11 off the bench.

“I think it is premature to say we are “for real”, but we are better,” Young said. “Being able to stick it in the post and certainly Tyrece Radford’s ability to put his head down, Justin Mutts has helped in that regard. It was a good night for the Hokies. I am really proud of our team. We took some legitimate steps forward.”