CHARLOTTE, N.C. — No ACC team this basketball season has resided on the NCAA Tournament bubble more than Virginia Tech. Moreover, no league program has endured worse injury fortune.
Those storylines intersected Tuesday at the conference tournament, the Hokies’ last chance to enhance their bracket credentials.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAbsent top scorer and No. 2 rebounder Amani Hansberry, Tech’s overtime magic finally expired in a 95-89 first-round loss to Wake Forest that likely extinguishes its NCAA hopes.
After an excruciatingly tense close to regulation, the Hokies headed to overtime for the fifth time this season. They had survived Providence, South Carolina and Elon in OT, Virginia in three extra sessions.
But the Deacons scored on their first four possessions of overtime to take a lead they never relinquished.
Though its first OT loss of the season, the what-ifs inherent in such a taut contest were a microcosm of a campaign that saw late missteps doom Tech (19-13) against Stanford, Miami, SMU and, yet again, Tuesday.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTrailing for much of the evening, the Hokies, despite a late flagrant foul on Tobi Lawal that Wake converted into two points, had chance to prevail on the final possession of regulation. But Ben Hammond missed a runner in the lane, and Jailen Bedford’s follow rolled off the rim as the horn sounded.
Hammond and Bedford led Tech with 23 and 17 points, respectively, and Jaden Schutt shook a recent slump with 15. But 41% shooting negated the Hokies’ 45-28 rebounding margin.
Sebastian Akins led six Wake double-figure scorers with 18 points.
Hansberry, a West Virginia transfer who averages 14.3 points and 7.4 rebounds, injured his left leg late in the second half of Saturday’s loss at Virginia and became the third Tech starter shelved this season.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLawal and Tyler Johnson missed nine and 15 games, respectively, each with a foot injury. Johnson returned for the final three regular-season contests, and with the roster finally whole, Hansberry went down.
His absence in the frontcourt was magnified when Lawal committed two early fouls, forcing him to sit extended minutes as Wake seized a 25-16 lead. The margin would have been worse had 7-foot-1 Antonio Dorn not provided a rare spark off the bench with four points, six rebounds and two assists in nine first-half minutes.
But Tech clawed within 38-34 at intermission as Hammond and Schutt scored five points each in the closing stretch, Schutt’s first points in the last three games.
Wake (17-15) advances to a 9:30 p.m., second-round game Wednesday against fifth-seeded Clemson (22-9).
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNo current ACC head coaches have collided as frequently as Tech’s Mike Young and Wake’s Steve Forbes. Tuesday marked their 19th encounter, dating to their Southern Conference days, Young at Wofford, Forbes at East Tennessee.
Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt, at least in this case.
Forbes and Young are friends, delight in needling one another on the ACC’s weekly media call and know one another’s in-game tendencies. Their kinship was apparent even as they passed through arena security about 90 minutes before gametime Tuesday, Forbes hazing Young for his coat and tie, Young returning with barbs about Forbes’ track suit.
Their two regular-season meetings were wildly divergent.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAt Wake Forest in early January, Nate Calmese’s step-back 3-pointer with six seconds remaining was the decisive shot in the Deacons’ 81-78 victory. Seven Saturdays later at Cassell Coliseum, the Hokies rolled 82-63, their largest winning margin of the conference season.
But Tech has since dropped three of four and is probably relegated to the National Invitation Tournament.
David Teel, [email protected]
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