NIT Second Round Recap - Connecticut vs Virginia Tech

(1) Virginia Tech 65, (4) Connecticut 63

In a fast-paced and highly entertaining second-round NIT game, Virginia Tech scored on a basket by Dorenzo Hudson with 14 seconds left to beat Connecticut, 65-63.

If these two teams from power conferences thought that the NIT was a meaningless consolation prize, you couldn’t tell it from the way they played. The action was frantic virtually from the beginning to the very end, with bodies flying and falling to the floor and high tensions surging on almost every possession.

The drama came down to the last half minute of play. Connecticut had possession and was trying to run off some clock before taking a shot. Husky guard Jerome Dyson, who beat Virginia Tech defenders repeatedly on the dribble, had the ball knocked away and in the course of regaining control, he committed a backcourt violation. Huskies coach Jim Calhoun screamed for a foul to be called but the ball went over to the Hokies.

On Tech's ensuing possession, Hudson dribbled into the lane and swished a high, arching runner to put Tech up 64-63. Connecticut had a final chance but Malcolm Delaney blocked a Kemba Walker jumper. Walker recovered the loose ball and fed his teammate, but Gavin Edwards - given a great look from three feet away, couldn’t make his chip shot from the left side of the basket, and Terrell Bell gathered in the rebound for the Hokies with 0.7 seconds left to effectively seal the win for the top seed.

Hudson led all scorers with 27 points and he led the Hokies in rebounds with seven. That helped make up for a miserable scoring night for Delaney, who led the ACC in scoring this season with an average of 20.5 points per game. Delaney was 2 of 14 from the field, including 0 of 5 from 3-point range, and scored just 6 points. J. T. Thompson chipped in 10 points for Tech, all of them in the first half. Walker (18 points) and Dyson (15) carried the bulk of the scoring load for the Huskies.

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The second half was closely contested with Connecticut holding a fragile lead for most of the period. Two Dyson free throws put the Huskies up 63-60 with 1:39 left, but those would be their last points. Tech’s Victor Davila was fouled after stealing the ball and he made both free throws to create a one-point game at 63-62 with 49 seconds left. That development set up the final, dramatic sequence.

Connecticut led at the half on the strength of a 15-3 scoring run in the middle of the first 20 minutes. The Huskies had a balanced attack during the run, just as they did for the entirety of the half. Dyson and Walker each scored nine points for the Huskies while Stanley Robinson posted seven. Five other players contributed two points each.

The Hokies seemed to be physically outmatched at times but managed to stay in the game with a couple of short scoring runs and on J. T. Thompson’s three-point shot at the first-half buzzer. That late three cut the Connecticut lead to 35-30 and gave Virginia Tech a lift going into the locker room. Tech slowed down the Huskies offensively in the latter stages of the half by switching to a 2-3 zone defense.

In the first half Tech actually shot slightly better from the field than did the Huskies (42 to 41 %), but Connecticut pulled down 11 offensive rebounds and got three steals.

Hudson and Thompson had 10 points each at intermission while Delaney couldn’t get untracked and had just one point in the first half.

What's Next:

The Hokies, being fortunate enough to survive Gavin Edwards's missed bunny in the final seconds, will be able to parlay their number one subregional seed into a third home game on Wednesday night in the NIT quarterfinals. Virginia Tech will host second-seeded Rhode Island at Cassell Coliseum, in a matchup that should be favorable for the Hokies. Virginia Tech won't have to deal with an opponent as powerful as the loaded but underachieving Huskies from Connecticut.

By: John Cary
BigEast-fans.com Guest Writer

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