Virginia Tech Basketball: Hokies Drop To 'Insane Pace' Jacksonville in 74-64 loss
Blacksburg, VA- There are a lot of words that could describe what took place on the most chilly of nights at Cassell Coliseum but perhaps the most accurate is "discombobulated."
Discombobulated in the sense that with 6:43 to go in the game with the Hokies down by five, freshman Ben Hammond made a smooth cut into the paint before dumping the ball off to Mylyjael Poteat. Poteat, a usually sturdy finisher around the rim, ended up missing the wide-open dunk.
Discombobulated in the sense that towards the end of the game, with 2:26 to go and the Hokies down 70-62 after a travel from the Dolphins, Tech starting guard Brandon Rechsteiner immediately lost the ball in what was one of 11 second-half turnovers.
Those two excerpts are by no means attacks on either Poteat or Rechsteiner, but rather microcosms of a much larger picture that has been brewing in recent weeks.
“I'd like to tell you that it's you know, really good practice, it hasn't been. We don't play with the best basketball IQ, and that's on me," quoted Hokie head coach Mike Young during his obligatory postgame presser.
For the Hokies, things looked good going into the second half, Young's squad registered a 10-point lead that was ferociously thrown down thanks to a Jaydon Young buzzer-beating dunk sending the relatively packed Cassell Coliseum into a frenzy heading into the break.
However, when looking at strong moments from the second, your highlight reel would be teetering on almost nothing.
From the minute the second half began, the Dolphins initiated a press, found through scouting that riddled the Hokies with a number of errors in Friday night's loss against BIG 10 opposition, Penn State.
"We started to do some “run and jump” which we saw in the Penn State film," said Jacksonville head coach Jordan Mincy. "And so those first few possessions, we were able to kind of turn those guys over and get in a rhythm."
The Dolphins launched an early 8-0 spurt to start the second, and from then on, never looked back.
Jacksonville scored 45 points during the final 20 minutes, and it felt as if everything that could go right, did and that may come down to what Mincy referred to as "insane confidence."
"Are we gonna stay together? Are we gonna stay connected? Which they did. You know, like I said, we didn't really look at the score, we knew we were down 10 at halftime, but at the same time we knew we could make a push in that first four minutes, we would have a chance to win the game."
The Hokies did themselves no favors in the second half. 36% shooting combined with the season's second-lowest half with just 25 points,, season's second-lowest was always going to open up an alley for any opposition to come back with.
There were multiple points in the final stretch where the game felt as if it was in a "Twilight Zone" space where the Hokies sat only down by two or three possessions, but no matter what, they couldn't pull it back. And when Young's squad left the door for Jacksonville to shut it, they did just that.
With just under four minutes to play, with the Hokies down by six, after a review confirming Dolphin ball, star forward Zimi Nwokeji popped a quick corner three, which sucked the air out of the building.
Seconds later, following a Tech two-pointer, Jacksonville guard Robert McCray drilled what turned into an and-one jumper that I marked in my game notes as "tough," bringing the Dolphins' lead back up to nine.
In these moments, when a response was needed, Tech couldn't sustain one, ultimately only pulling the deficit down to six with just under 90 seconds to go.
Eventually, the concourse had become filled with drooped heads of Tech faithful, as on the court. The Dolphins milked each second away from the clock, leaving Hokie players scrambling to foul, and when the final buzzer rang, it was official for the Hokies that they had dropped what was labeled a "buy game" to an ASUN side.
Addditional Links
Virginia Tech Basketball: Instant Takeaways From Hokies loss to Jacksonville
Virginia Tech Football: Three Keys To Victory For The Hokies Against Duke
Virginia Tech Women's Basketball: Hokies Pick up Win Over Big Ten Foe Rutgers
