The Virginia Cavaliers dropped their ACC opener to the Virginia Tech Hokies on Wednesday afternoon, losing in triple overtime, 95-85. The game in Blacksburg was a back-and-forth thriller across three-plus
hours of play.
Malik Thomas (26 points) and Thijs de Ridder (22 points and 13 rebounds) led the ‘Hoos in scoring. The Belgian also led the team in minutes, staying on the floor for 45 out of the 55 minutes of the game.
The first 20 minutes of action featured two offenses that could hardly hit the broadside of a barn. Virginia led 24-23 entering halftime despite shooting 29% from the floor and 17.6% from deep. Too often, UVA was settling for bad shots from behind the arc. The Cavaliers also only scored two second-chance points in the first half.
Thomas got going in the second half, scoring 12 points in his 13 minutes on the floor. But so did Tech point guard Ben Hammond who repeatedly touched the paint and created offense for the Hokies.
De Ridder took control in the final few minutes of regulation, scoring two hard-earned buckets, the first with 1:53 remaining and the next 50 seconds later to put Virginia up by two. With :34 left, one of a handful of questionable calls from the referees gifted the Hokies a basket off a goaltending call on Johann Gruenloh despite the fact that the ball visibly touched the rim before he got to the ball.
That sent the contest to its first overtime with the score knotted at 55-55.
Once more, a late basket from De Ridder gave the Cavaliers a two-point lead, this time with merely :13 left. But a defensive breakdown out of a timeout resulted in a wide-open flush for Virginia Tech freshman Christian Gurdak to force a second overtime.
The Hokies dominated for most of the next five minutes. They built a five-point, 75-70 lead by the time there were a mere 14 seconds left on the clock. Then Malik Thomas entered the game.
Oddly, Thomas did not play in overtime until that point of the second extra period. Why he missed the first 9:44 of overtime is a head-scratcher.
He proceeded to score six points (off a layup, a free throw, and a three-pointer) in nine seconds to give UVA a last-chance heave at the basket. His long two-pointer in the final seconds missed the entire basket. But, under the hoop sat Chance Mallory, who calmly rebounded the ball and laid it in off the backboard as the clock expired.
After that moment, everything went downhill for the ‘Hoos. Dallin Hall fouled out early in the period before Mallory exited the game due to a lower-body injury. That left the Cavaliers without a point guard for most of the third overtime, and the Hokies capitalized. They out-scored UVA 17-7 in the third period of extra play to seal a massive win on New Year’s Eve Day and send the ‘Hoos back to Charlottesville licking their wounds.
