Collegiate Times

After a strong first half, the Hokies were out-muscled, out-rebounded and out-scored in the second half, as they fell to Kansas State 69-61.

The loss is the Hokies in second this week, as they fall to 5-3 on the season.

“The reality is that we have four freshman playing right now, two sophomores that played limited minutes last year, and three upperclassmen,” said Seth Greenberg, head coach. “There’s a process that goes with teaching young guys how to become competitive guys. But we have to get our upperclassmen also to compete.”

The first half was anything but pretty, as both teams struggled with the fundamentals.

Tech held a 28-22 lead, but it was more due to the Wildcats’ failures than the Hokies success, as both teams shot a combined 32 percent with 16 turnovers.

Slow starts haven’t been unusual for the Hokies this season, though; as this was the fourth time in five games that Tech has failed to score 30 points in the first half.

“You have to credit their defense,” said Robert Brown, who shot six-for-17 from the field. “They were playing tough defense — when we get good looks, he have to knock them down. We’ve got good shooters on this team, and if we keep shooting, we’ll start making them.”

Out of the intermission, it was the Wildcats that immediately took control. Kansas State used its size down low as an entry point and started off the half with a 12-2 run in just under four minutes and took a 34-30 lead.

From then on out, the Hokies wouldn’t get another taste of the lead. Tech would fight the game back to a tie on two different occasions, but it couldn’t get over the hump.

With 9:23 remaining in the game, the Wildcats went on a run that would be the dagger for the Hokies.

Over a span of four minutes, Kansas State would out-score Tech by ten points— getting every point from inside the paint or from the free throw line.

Looking for a spark, just about every Hokie tried to get something going offensively, but to no avail. Dorenzo Hudson finished with less than 10 points for the fourth straight game, and while Erick Green finished second on the team with 14 points, he was four-for-17 and appeared to be forcing shots when the Hokies were pressing for points.

“I’ll look at the film, but he was trying to win, there’s no doubt about that,” Greenberg said. “He’s maybe missed a few shots he’s made in the past, but he’s not going to shoot like he shot at Minnesota every night, that’s just the way it is.”

But in the end, it was the Hokies lack of physicality that cost them the win. After outscoring the Wildcats by eight points in the paint in the first half, the Hokies gave up 26 in the second half.

“We just have to box out,” said Dorian Finney-Smith. “They were pushing us under the (basket), but we have to be more physical.”

Kansas State also outscored Tech 20 to 12 in second-chance points.

“In the second half, we didn’t guard the way we needed to guard,” Greenberg said. “We were a step behind everything they did and that is really, really disappointing. We’re doing some good things, we just have to do good things more often.”

On the positive side, Sunday’s game was the first time fans got to see freshman guard Marquis Rankin on the court, as he has missed the first seven games due to injury.

Rankin finished with two points in seven minutes of action, as he was used mostly to spell Green at point guard.

“I was really proud of him,” Greenberg said. “He’s only really played two days where’s he’s had contact.” We go into transition a little bit more with him. Now he’s got to get on the practice court — we were very limited as to what we could run offensively when he was in the game.”

The Hokies next game will be Wednesday, Dec. 4 at Rhode Island. Tech won’t play another game in Cassell Coliseum until Dec. 7.

A version of this article appeared in the Dec 5 issue of the Collegiate Times.