The Virginia Tech men's basketball team dropped its second straight Atlantic Coast Conference game Thursday, riding a second half slump to an 81-64 defeat at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils.
"I thought we competed at a high level in the first half; I think we played hard in the second half, but didn't compete," said Tech head coach Seth Greenberg. "You're not going to win a game like tonight('s) if you're not a little bit tougher-a little bit more poised."
The Cassell was rockin' early as an A.D. Vassallo three-pointer and Deron Washington side block on Duke's Kyle Singler got the Hokies on Fire crowd to its feet.
But a 6-0 Duke run, that was aided by some Tech turnovers, would douse the blaze for the time being before a Cheick Diakite dunk reignited the Hokie students. But, the Blue Devils pushed the lead to 18-10, prompting Greenberg to call for a timeout.
Poor shot selection would enable the visitors from Durham to grow their lead as large as 11 points before Diakite once again saved the Hokies from the Blue Devil onslaught.
But Tech would waste away many opportunities to close the gap in the game's first 12+ minutes by shooting 31.6-percent from the field and 50-percent from the free-throw line. Further adding to Tech's woes was its 10 turnovers heading into the under-8:00 media timeout at 7:57.
"We had some foolish turnovers," Greenberg said. "It's their defense."
For much of the first half the Blue Devils were able to keep the Hokies down by a few possessions thanks in large part to several key three-pointers when the Hokies were looking to regain the momentum and cut the lead. In fact, the Dukies shot 45.5-percent from downtown during the first half
"It's pretty tough," said freshman forward J.T. Thompson. "It seemed like we were trading baskets. We tried to get stops on defense, but it didn't seem like we could."
A Washington layup off a steal and a Terrell Bell tip-in bucket would each shrink the Duke lead to three points, prompting Mike Krzyweski to call his first timeout of the first half, a use it or lose it timeout, with 1:25 remaining.
The momentum shift late in the first half that saw the Duke lead cut to a single point would be enough for the Hokies to keep the game interesting and only head into the halftime intermission down 42-38 after a three-pointer by freshman Tyler King.
Singler, also a freshman, would help Duke add to its halftime cushion, increasing it to 53-45 by scoring nine of Duke's first 11 second half points before picking up his third personal foul.
"They're playing like upperclassmen," said Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. "Otherwise we wouldn't have won our first four (conference games)...Tonight (Taylor) hit some big shots for us. And then Kyle-Kyle had a big second half."
Once again, multiple empty possessions kept the Hokies from cutting into the Blue Devil lead. An intentional foul call on Washington would prompt an uproar from the fans that, which would later turn to disgust with the officiating. Subsequent Tech fouls would help the Duke lead grow to 60-47.
It was all downhill from there for the Hokies as the Duke lead would balloon to as many as 21 points en route to a decisive victory-a result that got to some of those in white.
"It was tough," said Washington. "I couldn't get (any) of the calls I usually get...It was just one of those games that you've got to learn from it and get better from it."