It almost felt like a game you were watching with a Super Nintendo controller in your hand and a copy of “NBA Jam” in the console. With each, eyes were affixed to the net for the possible existence of a light smoke before it would inevitably catch fire. That’s just how good Virginia Tech’s men’s basketball team was in the first half against Syracuse in Blacksburg on Saturday night.
An electric, unstoppable offensive performance set the tone as the Hokies blew out the Orange behind a crazy-shooting first half, downing the visitors 85-70. The Hokies moved to 13-8 and 3-7 in the ACC, making it back-to-back conference wins after Monday’s victory against Duke.
Tech led by 19 at the break and blew the doors off the game in the first half. Cuse was almost able to cut the lead to single digits in the second half before Mike Young’s team slammed the door shut, something it wasn’t able to do much during its seven-game losing streak that was snapped earlier in the week.
The Hokies fell to Syracuse by 10 earlier in the month, scoring just three treys, but they improved on it in this one by a margin of plus-10, converting 13 3-pointers.
“The zone will keep you up at night,” Young said. “A couple weeks ago, I was in Syracuse, New York, and saw my boys make two in the first half and … three total … I thought we put the ball in good places.”
Tech led 52-33 at the break and had 11 treys in the opening 20 minutes. The Hokies would hit just two 3-pointers in the second half, making only 2 of 12, but it didn’t matter. Tech outrebounded Cuse 37-26, and the Hokies had 26 assists to Syracuse’s 13.
The hosts had three players score double figures in the first half alone as Young’s team finished the night shooting 53.3 percent.
“When you have a guy like Hunter that can shoot the way he can,” Basile said, “he pulls somebody with him, and that kind of leaves them a little susceptible on the backside … When you have shooters like that, it makes it hard on the zone.”
Freshman MJ Collins stepped up big in place of Darius Maddox (family matter), scoring all 11 of his points in the first half. Justyn Mutts finished with 11 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists, while Grant Basile had 25 points, eight rebounds and five dimes. Hunter Cattor had 20 points, making six of his 10 3-point attempts.
“It’s a cheat code,” Cattoor said of Mutts. “You get the ball into Justyn Mutts and good things are going to happen. We were put in good spots today, we trusted Justyn to make those plays and he did.”
Tech’s season-high for assists was 19. On this night, the team recorded 26 in the best team performance we’ve seen out of the Hokies in months. Tech finished the game with a 1.73 assist-to-turnover ratio and only trailed for 40 seconds.
Judah Mintz led the Orange with 21 points, while Joseph Girard was held to just seven points. Giard had 24 points in the first meeting.
“I think we just made them uncomfortable,” Cattoor said. “Personally, I was just trying to get to his spot when [Girard] got there. He can shoot it in a click, so I was trying to get there as soon as possible and not give him a good look … Credit to our defense. We had a good scout plan by the coaches and went out and played hard.”
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