CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Virginia Tech has had some rough outings at The Heights in recent years. If nothing else, their trips up to these parts have been symbolic of the team in recent years, as they have on a couple of occasions been so close to victory but failed to pull one out. History repeated itself on Saturday, as the Hokies had plenty of chances before dropping a 58-56 decision to the Eagles.
Two years ago, the Hokies lost on a tip-in with less than a second left. That began what is now a three-game losing streak in Conte Forum, with their overtime win three years ago being their only win ever in the building. It was a game they would surely like to have back, as they finished 7-9 in the ACC two seasons ago while the Eagles were an NCAA Tournament team, meaning they could have pulled out a quality win. Last year, they laid an egg at a bad time in this building, getting blown out by 20 when they could ill afford a loss to a team that wasn’t going to see any postseason play. Saturday was another missed opportunity, as a road win over a team with a reasonably good NCAA profile would have helped this team out.
“We missed a road win,” said senior guard Malcolm Delaney. “We did it to ourselves. We had chances to win. Every time we tied or got the lead, we couldn’t get the stop.”
“It’s just disappointing, is the only way to put it,” added head coach Seth Greenberg. “We got up one, we couldn’t get stops, we couldn’t finish possessions. It didn’t come down to that last shot, there were so many other things.”
The Hokies were thought to be a team that could at least contend for second place behind prohibitive ACC favorite Duke entering the season. But a 4-4 start that included a loss to Virginia and a loss at Kansas State that didn’t look bad at the time didn’t help, and then injuries mounted once again, which has unfortunately been common in recent years. The injury factor was notable on Saturday as they got no scoring from the three players who came in off the bench. Before the season, they lost forwards J.T. Thompson (torn ACL in his left knee) and Allan Chaney (viral inflammation of the heart). Then Dorenzo Hudson and Cadarian Raines were lost before Christmas.
With the injuries hitting the front line especially hard, the healthy players have been needed more than ever, and Jeff Allen is certainly doing his part. On Saturday, he posted his fourth straight double-double with a monster 25-point, 19-rebound outing that included going 10-19 from the field. Best of all, he didn’t get in foul trouble as he has had a tendency to, and was able to play 38 minutes in a game they couldn’t afford for him to take himself out of.
Victor Davila is a capable post player and has had to step up, but foul trouble limited him on Saturday, so they had to go small at times. With the Eagles not being especially big, that wasn’t so bad, except Joe Trapani had a nice game with 14 points and nine rebounds while at times playing as the center and being away from the basket often.
“We need more guys contributing,” said Greenberg. “We need guys coming off the bench to contribute. We need guys in the lineup that can contribute. We need more guys making plays. Guys had opportunities, we just didn’t make them today.”
Even with all of the obstacles, which also included Delaney scoring just two points in the first half, the Hokies were right there for most of the game. Delaney scored 17 of his 19 in the second half and made big shots late, but offense ultimately wasn’t the issue even though they shot just 34.5 percent for the game. After a three-pointer by Delaney put them up 49-48, Boston College scored the next six points on consecutive three-pointers and led the rest of the way. Delaney hit two more jumpers, but the Hokies also had two turnovers, a missed layup and missed front end of a one-and-one in the final four minutes.
Still, despite that the Hokies had a chance. Down two in the final seconds after Boston College missed a jumper with the shot clock running down, the Hokies had no timeouts and worked the ball around to get a good look for Erick Green, who was 0-8 from the field in the game, and after the shot missed a loose ball foul by the Hokies brought the ball to the other end. A missed front end of a one-and-one was followed by the ball being knocked around to run out the final 1.1 second.
Virginia Tech has had a few missed opportunities, as they are now 2-4 in games decided by five points or less. But look a little closer, and you’ll find that all four of those losses were by one possession. Those are games that could easily go either way, and as has been the case in some other seasons, the Hokies are too often ending up on the wrong side of such games. They had a golden opportunity a few weeks ago at North Carolina, leading for a lot of the game before losing by three. At the end of the season, these losses could hurt a great deal.
The Hokies have a week off before they take on Georgia Tech and Maryland at home two days apart from one another. Four of their remaining seven games are at home, including Duke near the end of the month, so they could still head into the ACC Tournament with a good record. But unless they go on a big run now and in the ACC Tournament, some of the close losses may well sting come Selection Sunday as they may have to sweat it out once again.
