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It has been a rough year for both Virginia Tech and Miami (FL), and on Saturday both teams put on a performance that was nearly unwatchable in Blacksburg.
The Hokies outlasted the Hurriacanes 52-45. Miami managed to get up 58 shots paced by 15 offensive rebounds, yet only converted on 15 field goals. To make matters worse, it shot 8-17 from the free throw line. Both teams produced a halftime score of 19-15 in favor of Virginia Tech. No, that is not a misprint!
The lone bright spot of this tilt was Virginia Tech’s C.J. Barksdale who came off the bench and scored 12 points on 5-9 shooting to go along with seven rebounds.
For the Hokies, this snapped a 10-game losing streak, yet they have now swept the season series against the Hurricanes after beating them on Dec. 8 down in Miami. For Jim Larranaga‘s squad this one was a huge step back from their encouraging previous road win at Florida State, where they shot the lights out and showed flashes of last year’s tournament team. The “U” settled for way too many three-pointers, and they are flat out not a good enough shooting team to try to win games that way.
Miami’s leading scorer on the year, Rion Brown, was shut down scoring only 12 points on 16 shots, as Virginia Tech was content contesting jumpers and not trying to gamble for steals. On the other end, Brown made it difficult for the Virginia Tech guards to break loose, which kept the ‘Canes in this one.
In a game with a combined 11 turnovers, its unfathomable neither coach was able to make an adjustment to speed up the pace in order to put on a better display. In the end, Virginia Tech tasted victory and sometimes winning ugly is good enough when you haven’t been victorious in a month and a half.
Scott Groff is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @ucla_unknown and add him to your network on Google.
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