Virginia Tech tops radford 77-62 in New river valley matchup

Chris Hirons

November 25, 2020

BLACKSBURG, Va. — With nine minutes left the second half, point guard Wabissa Bede found Hunter Cattoor on the wing. After missing his only shot attempt in the first half, Cattoor didn’t hesitate. He rose up and drained a three-pointer right in Radford guard Keishon Porter’s face.

The Virginia Tech bench stood up and cheered as Cattoor raced down the middle of the court and set himself up to play defense.

Before Cattoor’s three-pointer, the Highlanders had crawled back into Wednesday’s matchup halfway through the second half as Xavier Lipscomb hit a jumper to cut into the Hokies’ 55-49 lead.

Thirty seconds after his initial three-pointer, Cattoor received another pass — this time from Tyrece Radford. As Cattoor pulled up from the logo with the shot clock dwindling down to zero, Josiah Jeffers attempted to derail Cattoor’s shot. Jeffers missed deflecting it and the ball sailed through the net.

Another thirty seconds ticked by, as Bede found Cattoor in three-point land again. Splash.

After Bede converted a jumper of his own after Cattoor’s third straight make beyond the arc, Cattoor iced the game with six minutes left. Justyn Mutts found him wide on the wing as he converted his fourth three-pointer in a row to cap off a 14-to-3 run.

There were no fans in the stands to cheer Cattoor on, as he finished the day four-of-six from beyond the arc and scored 12 points. Even though Virginia Tech blared Enter Sandman over the PA system before the game, no one jumped in front of the maroon seats in the recently renovated Cassell Coliseum.

Aside from the fake crowd noise that was piped in and sporadic player cheers and jeers, the arena was as silent as ever.

“It was different, really different,” head coach Mike Young said after Virginia Tech’s 77-62 win over Radford. “It's not what we’re accustomed to. That was different than I anticipated.”

With football and other fall sports having already been played, the Hokies knew what to expect - in terms of the lack of a crowd - as they headed into their season opener. Young and his players, though, admitted that they didn’t expect it to be as quiet as it was.

“It was definitely interesting playing in an environment like this,” guard Nahiem Alleyne said. “I’m just glad to play again, get the guys out there, and play a little basketball again.”

New health protocols were established months before Virginia Tech tipped off its season and ran away with the game against Radford. Sanitizing the basketball before it’s put in play, barring fans from attending games, media and staff health screenings prior to entering — it’s all become the new normal.

Before Tech’s first game in a normal season, the Hokies, as well as the rest of the nation, would have played two scrimmage games before suiting up for regular season play. But because this isn’t a normal year, Virginia Tech and Radford ran both of its lineups out onto the court in an almost blind manner.

Young penciled in his small ball starting lineup of four guards and a forward. Bede, Alleyne, Cattoor, Radford and Keve Aluma were announced as the Hokies’ starters just a few moments before play began. As if he was treating the game as a scrimmage, VT’s head coach quickly subbed in transfers Mutts, Cordell Pemsl and Cartier Diarra and freshmen Joe Bamisile and David N’Guessan.

Young frequently subbed those players in and out like a revolving door throughout the game, going 10-deep into his bench, while attempting to find what works best for his team before it takes on Temple and USF in Connecticut later this week.

In the first half, Young’s lineup was inconsistent at best. Shots clanked off the rim as the offense only shot 41.2% from the floor and 28.6% from three-point range. Aluma, Radford and Diarra all combined to score the team’s first 23 points. More production came by the way of Alleyne, who scored seven consecutive points to close out the first half.

“In the first half, in the first couple of minutes we were just doing one-pass shots and we can’t do that against better teams like Temple, who we play next,” Alleyne said.

Additionally, Tech lost the rebound battle in the first half 18-15, but gained extra possessions because of Radford’s carelessness with the basketball as the Highlanders committed eight turnovers.

Coming out of halftime, the Hokies needed a leader that they could turn as they only went into the half up 37-31.

Enter Keve Aluma.

The redshirt junior was brought to Virginia Tech with Young, who coached the forward at Wofford. Aluma, who only made one three-pointer in his time at Wofford, converted three of the five he attempted on Wednesday as he led the game in scoring with 19 points.

Both Young and Aluma credited the six-foot-nine forward’s range expansion to last year after he was forced to sit out because of antiquated NCAA rules.

“This kid sat out for a year and you either get better or you digress,” Young said. “He has got a beautiful stroke and big strong hands, yet soft hands, much like a tight end in football. He receives the ball well and is still working on his balance when he is off left or right. He can really shoot it and he is a hard guy to guard to be able to step out there and make that shot as a five.”

Aluma led the team in the second half as Virginia Tech racked up 40 points and shot the ball more efficiently with a 57.7% stroke from the field. After struggling to find the bottom of the bucket in the first half from deep, VT threw away those first half jitters and converted seven of the 12 shots it took from beyond the arc in the second half.

It was Cattoor’s four straight three-pointers and Bede leading the way down the stretch, combining for five of the Hokies’ last six baskets, good for 19 of Tech’s final 22 points.

Aluma, Alleyne and Cattoor all hit the double digit mark in scoring, while Bede and Radford added nine of their own. Diarra scored eight points, all on layups, in his Virginia Tech debut.

Virginia Tech takes on Temple in college basketball’s version of the NBA Bubble in Uncasville, Connecticut on Saturday night at 8 p.m.

“I’m just thrilled we’ve got this flight and we’ve got some time in Connecticut to watch and learn and grow, we needed it badly,” Young said. “All in all, I felt good about how hard they played. We had a couple of the guys play good basketball for us.”