ATHENS, Ga. -- Coming into Tuesday's game against Georgia, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team looked to finally get a win against an opponent from a major conference.
And on paper, the Bulldogs seemed like a likely party, especially after the 34-point thrashing it received from Illinois on Saturday. Except home-standing Georgia never got that memo as it played its most complete game of the season, defeating Tech 67-66 at Stegeman Coliseum in Athens, Ga.
As is becoming increasingly common for the Hokies (5-4) this season, the game came down to the final possession. But unlike the buzzer-beater losses to both Xavier and Wisconsin, the Hokies were the team with the possession. Still, the result was the same: Tech simply ran out of time.
"You'd like to win these games, and we're close," said head coach Seth Greenberg. "We're not very far away from being pretty good. We're on the road and had a chance to win."
"But beginning in the second half I didn't think we played with very good poise and we didn't rebound well."
The loss to Georgia (6-3) was Tech's fourth loss of the season where the final margin of victory was four points or less, and a loss Greenberg thought should have been avoided.
"You can look at one play in a game that can make a difference in these types of games," he said.
For Tech, these difference-making plays all occurred in the final 5:14 of play and all went in Georgia's favor. First, Bulldog sophomore forward Jeremy Price grabbed a long offensive rebound and slammed home the equalizing basket to make the score 60-60, prompting Greenberg to call a timeout.
Following the break, the Dogs changed from its man-to-man defense to a 1-3-1 zone and forced the Hokies into a shot clock violation and brought its season-high crowd of 6,779 to its feet in a raucous celebration.
On the ensuing trip down the floor, Georgia took a 62-60 lead after junior forward Albert Jackson rebounded a three-point attempt for sophomore Zac Swansey. Tech quickly answered with a dunk from senior Cheick Diakite to even the score at 62 apiece.
Leave a comment 3 Comments Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
Hmm, perhaps next time someone as good as Stephen Curry wants to come here and play you should offer him a scholarship... Thanks Greenberg, you were right, Curry is way too small to play...
Reply to this Top
Way to pass up (or perhaps mom and pop want nothing to do with VT anymore) on Curry's little brother as well. He's averaging 21 points as a freshman at Liberty!!
Reply to this Top
Also, we need to save our scholarships for true thugs. The Curry's are good students, well rounded people and actually have a head (and brain) on their shoulders. Way to non-hood for a VT scholarship.
Reply to this Top