Remember when Virginia Tech got its season back on track with its 74-68 win over Virginia? Seems like so long ago.
It was 11 days ago.
The Hokies’ next three were against the bottom-feeders in the ACC – Boston College, Notre Dame and Georgia Tech.
Somehow, Virginia Tech finished the three-game stretch with a 1-2 record, punctuated by a 77-70 loss at Georgia Tech on Wednesday.
The loss almost guarantees that the defending ACC Tournament champion will open the 2023 tournament on Tuesday in a first-round game – those matchups pitting the conference’s bottom six teams.
Virginia Tech (15-11, 5-10 ACC) remains three games behind ninth-place North Carolina (16-10, 8-7 ACC) with five games remaining in the regular season.
Which is what made the road trip to Atlanta one of the must-win variety.
Georgia Tech (10-16, 3-13 ACC) led 41-31 going into the break, and got the margin to as many as 16 in the second half.
A 13-2 Hokies run got the deficit to five on a three by Sean Pedulla that made the score 54-49 with 10:03 left, and a Grant Basile dunk at the 5:13 mark would get the score to 59-54.
The Yellow Jackets would get the lead back to double digits on a Lance Terry layup with 1:56 to go.
Virginia Tech would get it back to five twice in the closing seconds, but that’s as close as it would get.
Basile led four Hokies in double figures with 21 points. Justyn Mutts had 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists.
The difference in this one came at the three-point line. Georgia Tech, a 31.6 percent team from three coming in, connected on 11-of-22 from beyond the arc; Virginia Tech, which was shooting 35.5 percent from the bonusphere, was just 6-of-23.
Share
Chris Graham
