The Virginia Tech men’s basketball team overcame first-half shooting woes on Wednesday to beat Georgia Tech 62-58 in Atlanta.
The Hokies (17-11, 9-8) moved above .500 in conference as they try to play their way into the NCAA Tournament. Keve Aluma scored 12 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for Tech, while Darius Maddox was huge off the bench with 12 points. A 10-2 run in the second half allowed Mike Young’s team to seemingly pull away, though it got uncomfortable tight late on for the Hokes.
Nahiem Alleyne scored two clutch three-pointers in the run and finished with 12 points.
Tech started the game just 1-for-8 from the field and trailed 34-30 at the break, shooting 33 percent from the field. In the second half, Tech shot 44.8 percent.
Maddox, who has shown serious flashes off the bench, hit a jumper to break a tie in the second half and then caught fire, scoring eight points that allowed the Hokies to build an 11-point lead with under seven minutes to go.
A late 13-5 run by Georgia Tech made it a three-point game late, but Tech managed to defend well and hold on.
Tech finished the game with 15 offensive rebounds, scoring 14 second-chance points off of them.
Next, Tech goes to Miami on Saturday for a 3 p.m. ET game.