Virginia Tech held off a furious late rally to hold off #4 Virginia, 70-68, Monday night in Blacksburg.
The win was the Hokies’ first over a Top 10 team since February 2011 and the first under second-year coach Buzz Williams.
The Tech win also broke a seven-game losing streak to Virginia (12-2, 1-1 ACC).
The Hokies (10-4, 2-0 ACC) led 26-21 at the break and withstood an early second-half barrage from UVA point guard London Perrantes, who hit four straight three-pointers to lift the Cavs to a 38-34 lead at the 15:09 mark.
A Seth Allen three with 8:09 to go tied the game at 50, and another Allen three a minute later ignited a 15-4 run that gave Virginia Tech an 11-point lead with 2:10 to go.
Another Perrantes three cut the margin to 67-59, and after an Allen turnover, Isaiah Wilkins hit a jumper that cut the deficit to six with 1:27 left.
Justin Robinson went 1-of-2 from the line to get the lead back to seven. Anthony Gill scored in the lane with 33 seconds left, then connected on his first three-pointer of the season with 18 seconds left to make it 68-66.
Zach LeDay went 1-of-2 at the line to make it 69-66. Malcolm Brogdon made two from the stripe with 8.5 seconds left to make it a one-point game, and then Allen left the door open by going 1-of-2 at the line to make it a two-point game.
Perrantes drove to the basket from the left wing and was hit hard by LeDay and Shane Henry on a shot attempt in the final second, but no foul was called, and LeDay was credited with a blocked shot.
Henry missed both free-throw attempts with four-tenths of a second on the clock, but UVA was not able to get a final shot off in the limited time.
The Hokies shot 57.7 percent (15-of-26) from the floor in the second half and were 6-of-8 (75.0 percent) from three-point range.
For the game, Tech shot 47.1 percent from the field (24-of-51) and was 9-of-17 (52.9 percent) from three.
Virginia also shot well in the second half, connecting on 59.3 percent (16-of-27) from the field and 57.1 percent (8-of-14) from behind the arc.
UVA shot 49.0 percent (24-for-49) for the game from the floor and 45.0 percent (9-of-20) from three.
LeDay had 22 points on 8-of-15 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 shooting from three-point range for Virginia Tech. LeDay had made five three-pointers in 23 attempts in his Hokie career coming into the game.
Justin Bibbs had 16 points for Tech, 11 in the first half.
Perrantes had 22 on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor and 7-of-9 from three-point range to lead Virginia. Gill had 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting and eight rebounds.
Brogdon had 15 points on 4-of-11 shooting, seven rebounds, four assists and four turnovers for the ‘Hoos.
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