At the one minute mark in this game, a terrible scene was unfolding on the court as the ACC’s leading scorer, Malcolm Delaney, hit the deck and immediately clinched his ankle with a painful grimace on his face. Every Tech fan held their breath and hoped that their star guard would soon pick himself up and walk off the court. That never happened as Paul Debnam hopped off the bench and had to help carry the Hokies best player back with him.
The good news is that Delaney’s injury is nothing serious and he should be able to return fairly soon. He was diagnosed with an ankle sprain, the severity of which will not be known for a day or so.
However, with the Hokies star out of the game, the rest of the team did a nice job of picking up the slack and destroying Longwood right out of the gate.
Erick Green, who played a career high 30 minutes in Delaney’s absence, led all scorers with 15. Green was inconsistent in this game but he managed to knock down some key shots and proved that he could run the Virginia Tech offense without the Hokies star guard on the court.
Virginia Tech Tickets | Virginia Tech Jerseys | Virginia Tech Apparel
Virginia Tech Sweatshirts | Virginia Tech Hats | Virginia Tech Home
The Hokies were able to tighten their defense as well and control the tempo of this game from the get-go. They held Longwood to just 19-percent shooting in the first half, while the Hokies shot a season best 59-percent. Combine that with 25 trips to the free throw line and it’s amazing that the score was only 43-21 at halftime.
The 2nd half was more of the same from the Hokies as they jumped on the Lancers out of the gate and rode that big halftime lead to an easy Wednesday afternoon victory.
The Essentials
What Does It All Mean, Basil?
The Hokies finished their cupcake three game stretch while improving to a Greenberg best 11-1 on the season. What’s truly impressive about this performance is that when your star player goes down, you never know how your team is going to react. With they sulk and mail it in or will they ban together and fight for their fallen comrade. Obviously, in this case the latter happened and Tech had nine players contribute six or more points in this victory, including walk-on Paul Debnam.
Stats
Bullet Points
- I’ve never seen a coach let a player play out the first half with four fouls before, let alone let two players do it. Longwood’s Antwan Carter and EJ Dawson both had four fouls at the end of the first half, both of which were still on the floor when the buzzer sounded. I guess when you’re down by 20, you have nothing to lose but in all of my years of watching college basketball I don’t think I have ever seen that.
- Those damn half court buzzer beaters continue to be a high-percentage shot against the Hokies. The Lancer’s Ian Persaud hit a 45-footer at the halftime buzzer, which was his only field goal attempt of the first half. I’m not sure if there is a stat for that but if there is I can guarantee the Hokies are number one is half-court shots given up per game.
- Free throw shooting is going to be a determining factor in our ACC games this year and I doubt the Hokies will be on the positive side of that. In fact, the Hokies shot better with a hand in their face then without one. The Hokies shot just 56-percent from the charity stripe and that’s inflated due to Ben Boggs, who made eight of ten. On the year, Tech is shooting just 65-percent from the free throw line, which is good for eight best in the ACC.
- The Hokies have played some stellar defense over the past four games, holding each of their last four opponents to under 35-percent shooting from the field.
- Stat-wise, it appears that the Hokies will struggle in ACC play. Tech is 11th in the conference is 3-point percentage with 32-percent, 9th in points per game with 71, 12th in assist per game with 12.8, 8th in turnovers per game with 12.4, and 8th in steals per game with 7.8. However, the one stat we do have in our favor is blocks where we’re 3rd in the conference with 6 per game.
Next up
The Hokies will board a plane tomorrow and fly down to Cancun Mexico to play Seton Hall on January 2nd. Seton Hall has lost three of their last four games, two of which were conference games. They lost to Temple at home, then dominated an overmatched Navy team, then lost to West Virginia in overtime, and then lost to Syracuse by seven points.
If Delaney can play then the Hokies will have a good chance to win this game but without Delaney, this Pirates team should be able to beat the Hokies, or would at least be favored heavily heading into this game.
Enjoy this post? Subscribe to our RSS Feed and never miss another! Or sign up to get exclusive VirginiaTechFan.com Sports Analysis delivered straight to your inbox!
