Virginia Tech basketball: Hokies fall to Syracuse

The No. 16 Virginia Tech Hokies picked a bad time to have their worst shooting performance of the season.

The red-hot Hokies traveled to the Carrier Dome on Saturday to face the Syracuse Orange. If you know anything about Virginia Tech’s recent history in the Carrier Dome, well, it hasn’t been too good.

Those struggles continued for the Hokies (11-3, 5-2) on Saturday as Tech fell, 78-60, to the Orange (9-4, 3-3).

The Hokies got off to a rough start but appeared to be settling down late in the first half. Virginia Tech went on an 11-0 run and actually led Syracuse, 26-21.

That would be the last highlight for the Hokies on Saturday.

Syracuse dominated the Hokies in the paint, scoring most of its points inside. That strategy also led to more trips to the free-throw line, where the Orange shot 18 of 22. As a team, Syracuse shot 51 percent from the field.

The Orange’s success inside the paint led to a season-low 13 attempts from beyond the arc.

Meanwhile, Virginia Tech shot just 32.8 percent from the field. The Hokies were a dreadful 27 percent from the 3-point line.

Junior forward Keve Aluma had his worst game as a Hokie, scoring just two points. He made one of his 10 attempts from the field and also just had four rebounds.

Sophomore guard Nahiem Alleyne tried to keep the Hokies in the game, leading the team with 20 points. Unfortunately for Alleyne, he received little help from his teammates.

Sophomore sharpshooter Jalen Cone scored only three points, going one of eight from beyond the arc.

Tyrece Radford scored 10 points and pulled down seven rebounds for Tech. One encouraging development for head coach Mike Young was the performance of freshman forward David N’Guessan, who scored 10 points. It is the second time N’Guessan has scored in double figures recently.

Junior Justyn Mutts finished with nine points and eight rebounds for Virginia Tech.

The loss snaps a three-game winning streak for the Hokies, who had also won seven of its previous eight games.

Next up for the Hokies is a Wednesday trip to Notre Dame.