Despite a horrid first-half shooting performance, the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team played suffocating defense and made clutch free throws to defeat the Clemson Tigers, 70-59, Saturday at Cassell Coliseum.
The Hokies improved to 18-4 overall and 5-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The win also marked Tech’s 1,300th win in program history.
“It was a typical Clemson-Virginia Tech game,” head coach Seth Greenberg said. “Not aesthetically attractive, but obviously great intensity and a great sense of urgency on the defensive end.”
Junior guard Malcolm Delaney played all 40 minutes and finished with 30 points, five rebounds and two steals. He was 20-for-23 at the free-throw line, which tied the school record for free throws made.
In total, Tech shot 46 free throws and made 38. The Hokies’ ability to draw fouls and create mismatches undoubtedly propelled them to victory.
“I guess the practice facility paid some dividends,” Greenberg said, “because we were 38-for-46 from the line, and we probably shot more free throws this year than we’ve ever shot.”
Greenberg requires each player to make 100 free throws at practice.
“We actually have baskets,” Greenberg said. “It’s hard to have everyone make 100 free throws when you practiced in the Cassell and you had two baskets. It’s pretty easy when you have eight baskets. You can get through that in about 20 minutes.”
One of the mismatches was Delaney versus Clemson forward Trevor Booker. Booker, considered one of the best players in the ACC, struggled with foul trouble — two fouls were caused directly by Delaney’s fake shot.
“I know they’re an aggressive team and like to block shots,” Delaney said. “I took it upon myself to get Booker in foul trouble. I know he likes to block shots. I shot one and he jumped from almost the free throw line to block it, so I said, ‘Next time I’m going to pump fake him.’ He jumped. I just outsmart people.”
The Hokies held Booker to just seven points, which is eight points fewer than his season average of 15.4.
“We made a choice,” Greenberg said. “Pick your poison. Obviously (David) Potter had a pretty good game, but we didn’t want Booker to get going because he’s such an emotional leader for their team. Guarding him for 23 minutes sure is a lot better than having to guard him for 40 because that guy is a beast.”
“Coach Greenberg’s strategy (helped us win),” junior forward Terrell Bell said. “He always comes up with something new and good for us. We work on it in practice as hard as we can. Double down on Booker and get a feel for what he’s going to do. Once he started passing out, we adjusted to it. I think that helped us, and we got big rebounds.”
Things didn’t start out as well as Tech would have liked. Clemson bolted out to a 9-1 lead on the strength of good in-the-paint defense and Tech foul trouble.
It took Tech almost eight minutes to score its first field goal, and it finished its first half 4-for-26 in shooting.
With that kind of poor offense, most teams would buckle and be blown out, but the Hokies know how to play defense and know how to win close games this year.
“That’s the type of team we have,” Delaney said. “We can win games shooting 15 percent in the first half. That shows what type of team we are. Not many teams can do that and get stops. A lot of teams probably would have been down 15 to 20 (points). We’re going to fight regardless. We were diving on the floor. JT (Thompson) took a charge today — that’s like his first career charge. We just do all the dirty work.”
Delaney converted two free throws with 1:10 left in the first half to give Tech its first lead of the game, and it went into halftime with a 29-27 lead.
The second half featured back-and-forth action for the first five minutes as both teams were unable to string together a run.
Booker took his fourth foul with 13:14 left. That allowed Tech’s offense to open up and defense to clamp down. The Hokies went on a 9-2 run after that and never looked back.
“In the second half, we decided we couldn’t run the offense because they were so aggressive,” Greenberg said. “We were just going to spread the court, set some spread-ball screens and try to drive.”
The Hokies put the final nail in the Tigers’ coffin when Bell chased down Demontez Stitt on a breakaway and blocked his layup.
This energized the Hokies to close out the game with swarming defense. Junior forward Jeff Allen had key steals late in the game. He finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four steals. Clemson could no longer win battles in the paint, and the Hokies improved to 12-0 at Cassell Coliseum.
“He’s got such long arms,” Greenberg said. “He made two great plays. (Allen going for steals) is sometimes feast or famine, but today we’re eating well.”
Tech travels to North Carolina State on Wednesday for a bout with the Wolfpack. Tip-off is at 9 p.m. and will be broadcasted on ESPNU.