I had the joy of watching the first half of Tuesday's Virginia Tech basketball game against Wake Forest on a TV behind the bar area of a local restaurant. In my head played "Yakety Sax" (otherwise known as the Benny Hill theme) as the Hokies committed 11 turnovers and Wake Forest shot 34.4 percent from the floor.
Tech tried its best to keep the out-classed Deacs in the game through the game's first 20 minutes and still went into halftime with a comfortable 13-point lead. It helped that when the Hokies did get a shot off they were making them at a 60 percent rate for the game and pulling in 45.5 percent of available offensive rebounds.
The Hokies were just that much better than the Deacs, who wound up losing to Virginia Tech by a total of 43 points in two games. Wake had no answer for the Hokies' hot shooting streak nor one for their zone defense, which forced the Deacs to force up futile three after futile three. Wake went 0-for-9 from behind the arc in the first half and 3-for-18 for the game.
It was simply a dominating effort for the Hokies, who got 17 points from stars Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen and (in the game's biggest development) Jarell Eddie.
A week prior to the game against Wake, Eddie was getting cited for possession of marijuana. Against the Deacs he scored a career-high in points on 6-for-6 shooting, including three 3-pointers. He also pulled in a team-high nine rebounds and had an assist.
The Hokies needed the boost from Eddie because Victor Davila wasn't a factor and Jeff Allen was in foul trouble. Allen had three fouls at halftime, but avoided fouling out to finish 7-for-10 from the floor with eight rebounds.
The high turnover number was the only real cause for concern for the Hokies, who put up a solid offensive rebound number and had 14 assists on 27 field goals, a huge improvement over their previous game against UVa. The Hokies are now unbeaten in ACC play when they have at least 10 assists in a game (6-0).
The Hokies were their own worst enemies against the Deacs. They committed an astounding 18 turnovers, tying their ACC high, but only seven came on Wake steals. The unforced errors were one of the reasons Tech was able to keep Wake at arm's length. Because the turnovers weren't coming on steals, Wake wasn't able to get in transition. Meanwhile, six of Wake's 10 turnovers came on Tech steals.
The turnover bug has hit the Hokies hard and at the wrong time with Duke coming to town this Saturday. The Hokies have committed 53 turnovers in their last four games after committing just 20 in their previous three. That's something that has to be fixed if they want to pull the upset Saturday.
Blogger So Dear has the Wake take on Tuesday's game.
Next on Virginia Tech's basketball schedule: 9 p.m. EST Saturday at home vs. Duke.
