Tale of Two Halves; Tech Crushes Boston College 67-48

Deron Washington has a slam dunk in the second half against Boston College Tuesday night.
STAFF PHOTO BY BRIAN SEWELL

The Hokies have been notorious this season for getting off to slow offensive starts.

With a game as critical as Tuesday night’s hosting Boston College--not scoring a field goal until the 15:47 mark didn’t bode well for Virginia Tech. Add to that Tech’s leading scorer A.D. Vassallo put up a donut in the scoring column—and you may have a problem.

You may have a problem, that is, unless you hold your opponent to 32 percent shooting in the first half and zero free throw attempts. That allowed Tech to hold a 25-20 lead going into the half.

Then came “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”. Then came the “Tale of Two Cities”—except replace cities with halves.

The Hokies opened up the second half with a 19-5 run in the first five minutes. They outscored themselves in the first 10 minutes of the second half compared to the entire first half.

“I told them we can’t pull a rabbit out of our rear end every game,” Coach Seth Greenberg said. “ Obviously it didn’t work.”

Adding to that, they continued their defensive stronghold over the Eagles. Boston College finished the game shooting 31 percent and 4-18 from beyond the arc.

Eagle guard Tyrese Rice, who went off on Tech for a season high 27 points in Chestnut Hill, was held to 6-16 from the floor for 15 points. Rice was also only 1-5 from beyond the arc.

“ We need to get more scoring from other people and we didn’t do that. You can’t have your starters shoot the percentage that they shot,” Boston College coach Al Skinner said.

The Hokies also turned their Achilles heel from earlier in the season into their biggest asset in this game. The Hokies capitalized off Boston College turnovers, scoring 16 points in the first half and 20 for the game.

After six turnovers in the first nine minutes and 10 turnovers at the half, the Hokies only lost the ball four times in the second half.

Fans left the game a few minutes early to beat the traffic—this time for a good reason. The Hokies sealed the game when they stretched their lead to 26 points before putting in their bench.

While Tech hosts Wake Forest next Tuesday for their official last home game of the season, Tuesday night’s game may have been the last for the majority of the Cassell Guard. The students will be on spring break during Senior Night—Deron Washington’s last game.

“ I just know we have to get people in here on Tuesday to honors these seniors—Marcus and Deron,” Greenberg said.

Tech last played Wake back in December when they lost a seven point lead with a little over a minute left to lose on a Ishmael Smith jumper with less than two seconds left. Since that time, it seems to be a team consensus that the Hokies have grown.

“ I think we’re making better decisions since then. We’re definitely playing a lot harder and have more of an understanding of what it takes to win. The freshman have more experience and we have better chemistry as a team,” Vassallo said.