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Virginia Tech (8-9, 0-4) suffered another loss Sunday evening as the UNC Tar Heels (14-4, 4-1) out scored the Hokies 68-53 in Chapel Hill. The game was sloppy for both teams offensively with Virginia Tech having 14 turnovers and a field goal percentage of 35.8%.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>A final from Chapel Hill, the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hokies?src=hash">#Hokies</a> fall to No. 15 North Carolina 68-53. Smith leads the way w 11 pts, Henry adds 10 and 9.</p>— VT Men's Basketball (@VT_MBBall) <a href="https://twitter.com/VT_MBBall/status/556989133223362560">January 19, 2015</a></blockquote>
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The difference in the game (and most of the Hokies losses) was on the glass where UNC out rebounded the Hokies 49-22. In the first half the Hokies played fairly well defensively, but could not seem to come away with 50/50 balls, which gave the Tar Heels easy second chance opportunities. Offensively, the Hokies had a very tough night from the field with the Hokies starters only making eight total shots from the floor the entire game.
In the second half the Hokies seemed to turn up the pressure, which forced UNC to turn the ball over (17 total for the contest) thus creating some easy/open shots for the Hokies. Adam Smith paced VT with 11 points while Shane Henry added 10 more.
This evenings loss continues the January-woes for the Hokies as they have not been very good to start the year the past few seasons and unfortunately play two very good ball teams this next week, Notre Dame and UVA.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Hokies?src=hash">#Hokies</a> basketball has lost 13 straight games played in the month of January. Tech's last January win was 66-65 over Wake Forest in 2013.</p>— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) <a href="https://twitter.com/RTD_MikeBarber/status/556973608686612480">January 19, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Virginia Tech will be back in action Thursday in Cassell Coliseum as the #12 Notre Dame visits Blacksburg.
Go Hokies