Hokies Fall to Hot-Shooting Louisville 91-83

Barrage of Cardinals' three-pointers leads to the Hokies' third consecutive loss.

Zach LeDay attempts to draw a charge. [Mark Umansky]

Rick Pitino has long been known for defense, a confounding matchup zone and equally effective full-court press hallmarks of his Hall of Fame coaching career. This year, Pitino's pretty fond of his offense, too.

"This is not one of my finer defensive teams...(But) we are a terrific offensive team," said Pitino. "We had one bad shooting night, Clemson, and everybody thinks we're a bad shooting team. (Trey) Lewis and (Damion) Lee can shoot the hell out of of the basketball."

And on this night, oh was Pitino right. The Cardinals drained a remarkable 12 of 18 from behind the arc — 10 of which came from the aforementioned Lee and Lewis — and survived a brief first half scare on their way to a convincing 91-83 victory over the home standing Hokies.

The Hokies played well — 12 turnovers and 33 points from the charity stripe are oft numbers from the winning side. Throw in a near even rebounding margin and a decent enough shooting night, and head coach Buzz Williams had all the ingredients he deemed necessary for an upset win over the sixteenth-ranked Cardinals. So when that victory didn't come to fruition, Williams had a succinct message for his team — I'm sorry.

"We had less turnovers than they did. We had the same number of offensive rebounds than they did. We gave them four points in transition. They shot one more ball than we did," lamented Williams. "So I apologized to the team — you guys did everything that I asked you to do. I thought you played with great heart, great energy."

"We call 3 consecutive baskets a "heat," Williams added. "We had 8 heats against the number one field goal percentage defense team in the country. Number two (in the country) in offensive rebounds as far as points per possession, (tonight) they score nine. We made 33 free throws and only turned it over 12 times, I would say we're gonna win that game."

But as the headline shows, the Hokies did not win, due at least in part to a brilliant 29-point performance from graduate transfer Damion Lee. Lee was effective in every area — 6 assists and 5 rebounds had glimpses of a triple-double on the horizon late in the second half.

Louisville star big man Chinanu Onuaku played just 3 minutes in the first half after picking up two early fouls, but the Maryland native made his presence felt over the game's final twenty minutes with 7 second half points. The Hokies threw the kitchen sink at Onuaku, but perhaps no Hokie big was more impressive defensively than the rarely-used Johnny Hamilton, a positive sign for a Virginia Tech team lacking a strong interior presence.

Jalen Hudson had his most complete game of the season and finished with 27 points and 7 rebounds. The Richmond native was aggressive from the opening tip, repeatedly drawing fouls from Cardinals' defenders that had a nightmarish time trying to keep him in front.

It was a distinctly similar story for Seth Allen. The Maryland transfer finished with 26 points, 13 coming from the free throw line. Pitino raved about the offensive ability of Allen postgame, even lobbing out a lofty comparison to a former NBA point guard who ended up enshrined in Springfield.

"Allen is as tough a point guard as there is to defend," said Pitino. "There's a lot of Tiny Archibald, much better player than Seth Allen, but Seth Allen's got a lot of Tiny Archibald in him. He goes to the left, he finds the guy's body and hits it and still gets a shot off. It's rare when that kid gets his shot blocked because he makes the contact first."

Zach LeDay had his typical productive night, quietly throwing together a 20 point, 3 rebound performance that makes you wonder how the undersized forward manages to fill up the box score with such reliable frequency.

The Hokies jumped on the Cardinals early and held an 8-point lead through ten minutes before Pitino burned his first timeout. Pitino's message to his troops clearly paid dividends as the Cardinals rattled of a 10-2 run that tied the game at 22 with 7:04 to play. The game stayed tight over the final seven minutes, but Lee hit a last second three-pointer to close out the half that gave Louisville a 38-34 advantage headed into the break.

The Hokies never led again. They came close, sure, but backbreaking three after backbreaking three seemed to suck the air out of a Cassell Coliseum crowd of more than 7,000. Tech fought valiantly late, fouling over the game's final minute in hopes of a comeback, but ultimately the high-powered Louisville offense emerged victorious.

But even despite the Hokies' third-straight loss, the admirable effort of Williams' gritty squad — against a perennial college basketball power, no less — continues to represent progress for a program in such desperate need of it.

"I'm not trying to get rid of him, but he would make a great pro coach," said Pitino of Williams. "He puts you in pick-and-roll isolations that hurt Virginia, hurt us. They hurt everybody with it."

"Everything he does offensively is difficult. He's really one of our bright young coaches in our game. For the second year at Virginia Tech, he's doing an awesome job."

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"I want to punch people from UVA right in the neck." - Colin Cowherd

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The Orange and Maroon you see, that's fighting on to victory.

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"It might be dark outside, but it's LeDay in here." - Jay Bilas

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Pain is Temporary, Chicks Dig Scars
Glory is Forever, Let's Go Hokies!!

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The Orange and Maroon you see, that's fighting on to victory.

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The Orange and Maroon you see, that's fighting on to victory.

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"Stick it in, stick it in, stick it in!" - William Addison Caldwell, 1872

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