The Hokies got some rest this week. After their Saturday loss, the schedule had a Tuesday game break, and that seemed to pump some life into the Hokies’ offense. Though the shooting numbers could have been better, the end result was a good 9 point lead at the half; 32-23, and then a one point bumper in the 2nd half that brought the final gap to 10 points at the final buzzer. Tech scored 35 in the second half to accomplish something that they haven’t done for a while; put an opposing team at a disadvantage at the half, and keep them there.

It seems that the Hokies managed to do what they have been for the better part of their successful games, change court leaders where other players than the starters jump in and make a difference. In this case Jalen Cone came off the bench for a 12 point effort. Starter P.J. Horne posted a team high 18 points and Tyrece Radford managed 3 rebounds and 4 assists to go with his 8 point effort.

Game Percentages: Field Goals: 43.9% 3-Pointers: 37.5% Free Throws: 83.3%

Without getting ahead of ourselves, this pretty much put an exclamation point on the observation that before this afternoon, the mostly Freshman Hokie Men’s Basketball team was exhausted. Most of them haven’t played for this long before, and their big challenge this season will be finishing in good order with some solid wins and a bid to the NIT.

This was a whole team effort with most of the ready bench playing some time, and the scoring and rebounding spread around. All in all a much better and more complete game, and that’s good.

Next up Miami visits the Cassell on February 19th.

GO HOKIES!!!