Hokies sputtering start turns into cruise against Wofford
BLACKSBURG - The Hokies moved to 3-1 Sunday evening after an authoritative 98-76 thumping of Young's former side, the Wofford Terriers.
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For once, I will spare you an excerpt about the Hokies sluggish beginnings. Does this mean Sunday night was anything out of the ordinary? No, but it did feel like the Hokies were much more to the pace early on.
Half number one felt scarily close. Neither side looked up to playing lockdown defense, yet both squads were on or near enough to on their A-game. By halftime, the score looked an eerie 43-33 in favor of the Hokies. Both sides shot relatively well from the field, the Hokies clipped an efficient 45.2% in comparison to Wofford's exact 50%. And if you were to take a deeper look at the stats. things for the most part looked neck-and-neck. The only major stats that caught eyes were the 12 points off of turnovers and their 14 on second chances. Now a lot did go into that second chance point stat, as every Hokies beside Rechsteiner, Collins, and Young (all three are guards and Young didn't see the court) snagged at least one board.
The biggest storyline of the first half was Hunter Cattoor's ever-closing gap to the history books. Throughout the first half, Cattoor was drilling threes with ease and finished half number one just three three-pointers away from taking the crown from A.D. Vassallo who sits with 267 threes.
Half number two provided the clarity all Hokie fans wanted. The tempo was picked up thanks to a sharpness around point guard Sean Pedulla that spearheaded the Hokies into an exciting free-flowing ball squad that raised Cassell to decibels that a half-filled Cassell could originally never feel possible.
This is perhaps best captured in a 20-second snapshot where a flurry of stellar defense by Robbie Beran and Mylyjael Poteat, quickly turned into easy fast-break buckets with a Pedulla fast-break layup and a Tyler Nickel three-pointer that took the Hokies lead to 21. From then on, it was the dominance on the inside as the Hokies finished the second half with 28 points in the paint alone.
Cattoor was not able to seize Vassallo's crown as the guards only two three-pointers in the second half both were denied entry from the basket. Yet it is almost a guarantee the senior will pickup the record in his hometown of Orlando, Florida next week.
Since Mike Young arrived, he has been dealt some of the Hokies' most illustrious big men in Justyn Mutts and Keve Aluma. While both Mutts and Aluma differed in what they offered on the court. Their presence was felt game in and game out. This is the first time Young has not had his big man practically be the first name on the team sheet. But Lynn Kidd's impact in year number three with the Hokies is impossible not to notice. And once again the Gainsville native shined with 20 points and seven rebounds on the night.
This was a much-needed victory for the Hokies, although the ship is still shaking, dominant wins like Sunday night's steadies the ship. Up next for the Hokies sits the Boise State Broncos, at the ESPN Events Invitational on Thanksgiving at 8 p.m.
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