BLACKSBURG, Va. – Keve Aluma scored a career-high 29 points to lead No. 20 Virginia Tech to a 65-51 win over No. 8 Virginia. The Hokies rallied from a 10-point deficit in the second half and snapped a four-game losing streak to the Cavaliers.
“I think it was an 8 point Virginia lead at the under 12. I thought we were close, I thought we were on a couple of actions. Aluma (Keve) was playing really well as he did throughout. I thought the ball was moving a little bit better and I thought we screened a little bit better from that point on,” said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young.
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“On the other end, we continued to contest and I thought we did a nice job on the glass. They had four offensive rebounds in the second half, that surprises me a little bit. It was just better basketball from our team and it couldn’t have come at a better time. A good win for the Hokies.”
Kihei Clark scored 11 points and Jay Huff tallied 13 for the Cavaliers, who made just one shot from the floor in the final 8:25.
“It’s never for the full 40 minutes but you just can’t have big gaps where you’re not getting stops or being assertive enough. It was too easy for them to post up, do things and then make some plays and we just weren’t right. And boy let that be a lesson because you can’t survive like that,” said Virginia head coach Tony Bennett.
“So again, we’ll try to grow from it. There were stretches we got a lead, we ran some good stuff, had stretches a good defense, I’ll always acknowledge that. But, either a half of basketball or a part of basketball doesn’t work, it has to be start to finish. We knew Virginia Tech was going bring, in a rivalry game, you’re gonna get their best shot so can we give them our best shot, partly due to them, partly due to us we did not do that for long enough to win enough possessions at all. They just sort of got momentum and we couldn’t hang on.”
“It’s a big win for us, coming in we had a great scout from our coaches and we executed it. We played well as a team, I thought it was a great team win and a great win to keep moving forward in ACC play,” said Hokies guard Hunter Cattoor.