College Basketball

Hokies Get No Luck In Tough Loss

Updated Mar. 5, 2020 2:05 a.m. ET

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Fansided, Jw Gravley/FanSided via Fighting Gobbler

No. 20 Notre Dame was delayed in their trip to Blacksburg but it didn’t seem to phase them during the game.

It was a sold out crowd inside Cassell Coliseum with the No. 20 Fighting Irish bringing their six game win streak into Blacksburg to face a Hokies squad who was looking to get over the .500 mark in conference play.

The Hokies started the game scoring the first four points and prior to the first media timeout the Irish and Hokies traded buckets left and right but once the Irish got comfortable it seemed like Tech was going to need more than just luck to be on their side to pull off the upset at home.

Notre Dame went up 14-12 and didn’t look back in the first half as they rode a 19-0 run extending their lead over the Hokies to 33-17. After coming out of a timeout, Seth Allen managed to find his way on the stat sheet with a pair of three-pointers and a easy layup in transition to cut the deficit to 33-20.

The Hokies fans were trying to get the team back in the game and with every small run the Hokies were making and it helped Tech cut the Irish lead to eight right before the half going into the break down 39-31.

“The fans were good today. Too bad we didn’t get the win for them,” Justin Robinson said. “I believe it has been like a year or something since the last time we lost on our floor so not protecting our house, it stings.”

The Hokies were impressive in the second half to come back from down 19 in the first half and they were down by as much as 14 in the second half, but they also gave the game away in the final minute with a couple of simple mistakes including an offensive foul and a shocking turnover on a “roll the ball up the court to save time” in-bounds play that caught everyone off guard and gave Notre Dame enough breathing room.

“All I know is I went to turn around to get the ball and my feet were up in the air,” Robinson said. “The refs didn’t call it a foul so I guess it wasn’t a foul. Just a bad decision of mine.”

Virginia Tech didn’t play a sound game, matter of fact it was one of their worst three-point and free throw shooting performances in recent memory. Tech shot 10-for-18 from the charity strike missing some key opportunities down the stretch, but head coach Buzz Williams noted that his team practices free throws.

“We have guys who are shooting over 60 percent and a couple guys shooting right at 80 percent from the free throw line,” Williams said. “Do you practice them? Yeah. But obviously we need to get better.”

Chris Clarke played a mans game against the Irish dropping 21 points, grabbing nine boards and producing five assists for the Hokies. Although Clarke was happy with overall performance, he was also upset with his free throw shooting.

“I need to be better there. I put this loss on my shoulders,” Clarke said. “I let my team down, I let these fans down. This is our first loss on this court in a long time and it is my fault. No one to blame here but me.”

This loss is a critical one in conference the next game against Georgia Tech at home, according to Seth Allen, is a must win.

“We need to win this next game and go to .500 in conference. If we fail to do that then we will be in some trouble,” Allen said. “They [Georgia Tech] won’t be a cake walk. They have some big wins this season, they are a good squad.”

While a win would’ve helped, the Hokies are still in a strong position to make the NCAA Tournament. Joe Lunardi of ESPN currently has the Hokies getting a eight seed in the tournament facing a VCU-like squad or a smaller school at the nine seed.

“We aren’t thinking of the right now,” Williams said on the NCAA Tournament. “We just need to do our job, stay focused on the task at hand and everything else will take care of itself.”

As for Notre Dame they had four guys in double-figures with Steve Vasturla leading the way with 20. Bonzie Colson, who had a double-double dropped 14 points and grabbed 12 boards for the Irish was a man on a mission all game. Matt Ferrell also had 14 points as well and a key steal to seal the win for the Irish, with TJ Gibbs coming off the bench to have 13 points which led all of the Irish bench players in points.

“We have talented guys on this team who know how and have the will to win,” said Irish head coach Mike Brey. “Our guys played well today and overcame some mistakes down the stretch and took advantage of some of their mistakes too.”

Virginia Tech was looking to make some noise with the students returning back to campus on Saturday but it just wasn’t in the cards. The Hokies will now welcome the Yellow Jackets who are 10-6 and 2-2 in the ACC with one of those conference wins coming against North Carolina.

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