BLACKSBURG — Virginia Tech’s hopes for an NCAA Tournament bid was a down-to-the-wire situation going into Saturday’s game against Florida State at Cassell Coliseum.
Florida State snipped at least one of those wires.
The Seminoles continued their late-season surge by dominating in the second half on the way to a 92-69 ACC win over the Hokies, who suffered their worst home loss since falling by 32 points in their home finale last March to North Carolina.
“We were outplayed and outcoached — that may be the understatement of the year,” Virginia Tech coach Mike Young said.
The timing for such a setback could not have been worse for Virginia Tech (17-9, 6-7). The Hokies were coming off a 10-point road victory over No. 20 Clemson and had worked their way back into the postseason conversation as a result.
“We had a great win on Wednesday,” Young said. “We played a really good basketball game against a very good team. Our team certainly understood the magnitude of this one.”
Any momentum the Hokies had gained from Wednesday cratered in the second half. Virginia Tech struggled on both sides of the court, while Florida State (12-13, 5-7) played what first-year coach Luke Loucks considered to be his team’s best performance of the season.
The statistics, particularly in the second half, would support that statement.
The Seminoles, who trailed by three points at the half, outscored Virginia Tech 53-27 in the second half while making 18 of 23 field-goal attempts (78.3%) during that stretch, including five of seven 3-point shots. About a third of that offensive production came from guard Martin Somerville, who had 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half.
Meanwhile, the Florida State defense held the Hokies to just 36% from the floor (9-25), forced eight turnovers and held Virginia Tech leading scorer Amani Hansberry to just two points in the second half.
“All of these guys stepped up,” Loucks said of his team. “The stats would say they had a great offensive game, but I would argue their defense was better than the offense — especially in the second half.”
Considering the regular-season road schedule remaining for the Hokies — Virginia Tech will visit 20-win Miami, No. 11 North Carolina and No. 15 Virginia prior to the conference tournament — and ESPN’s Bracketology projection leading into the weekend listing the Hokies on the “first four out” bubble line, protecting the home court on Saturday was essential.
In the first half, Virginia Tech appeared to be on the right track.
Florida State led for just 23 seconds over the first 24 minutes of the game and if it had not been for a number of missed shots by the Hokies near the rim, risked falling behind by double digits on numerous occasions. Virginia Tech led 49-44 following a pair of Hansberry free throws. But it would be a while before the Hokies would score again
Florida State, which has won five of its past seven games after starting 0-5 in the ACC, went on a 13-0 run, capped by a Somerville trey, to take a 57-49 lead with 13:01 to play. Another 3-pointer from Somerville with 8:36 to play gave FSU a double-digit advantage that remained the rest of the way.
“I never want to discard it when (the other team) is making shots,” Young said. “But you’ve got to guard it better. To their credit, they saw some things on film coming in that they liked and just went at us one on one in a couple instances — a number of instances.”
As has been the case on several occasions this year, Young and his team must find a way to quickly regroup and make the most of the remainder of the season, and there is not much time to figure out how to bounce back at 9 p.m. Tuesday at Miami.
