2007.03.18
Hokies lose to Salukis
Mark Berman back here in Columbus, Ohio, where a great Virginia Tech basketball season came to an end with a 63-48 loss to Southern Illinois in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Tech's late-season shooting woes continued. The Hokies shot 41.3 percent from the field, including 2-of-13 from 3-point range. A.D. Vassallo was a woeful 0-of-6 from 3-point range.
SIU lived up to its billing as one of the nation's best defensive teams.Tech was the 8th team to score fewer than 50 points against SIU, ranked third in D-I in scoring defense.
"It's hard for you to get second-chance shots and they play great defense in transition," Jamon Gordon said. "Half court, it just seemed like we were just missing shots."
"One thing they do well is they play help defense," Zabian Dowedell said. "Anytime you drive you can expect to be cut off by another defender. I think we did a good job of kicking the ball and penetrating and kicking but we just didn't make enough shots."
Dowdell's last-season shooting woes continued; he was 3-of-9 for the field. The All-ACC guard had just seven points.
Coleman Collins picked up his third and fourth fouls early in the second half and went to the bench. Coach Seth Greenberg put him back in with less than 12 minutes left but he fouled out with 7:50 left.
Gordon was 7-of-9 from the field for 16 points but was 1-of-5 from the line. Deron Washington had 15 points but was just 6-of-12 from the field
Tech led 18-15 before SIU closed the first half on a 13-2 run, but Greenberg was more upset with his team's shooting woes before the run than during the run.
"We had good looks early in the game. We didn't make them," he said.
SIU was 12-of-21 from 3-point range. Jamaal Tatum had 21 points and was 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Tony Young, averaging 9.6 points, was 4-of-8 from 3-point range and had 17 points.
"They was hitting everything from the outside," Gordon said. "We was trying to double down. They would make a great pass out of the post. ... We kept moving around and sometimes we got caught looking at the ball when it was coming out .... They were taking shots at the end of the shot clock and anytime you do that, that kind of kills your momentum because you've played defense for 35 seconds and then they hit the shot, it's kind of hard."
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On the off season Tech needs to work on there foul shooting.
Comment by Ed Jones — March 19, 2007 @ 12:47 pm
Tech has one legitimate shooter, Vassallo,the rest are throwers born from playground basketball. Greenburg had better have several shooters lined up to recruit or next year will be long and non-productive. Of course since he passed over Stephon Curry, I,m wondering. The 30 points he scored against Maryland sure would have helped against SI.
Comment by T.Lester — March 19, 2007 @ 6:19 pm
We got lucky against the Illini. When you don't hit open shots or hit free throws you can't expect to win against a tough defensive team like So Ill or advance in the tournament. Rough way to end the season and college careers for our seniors. Dowdell's play was totally out of character much like the teams' overall performance.
Comment by T.D. — March 20, 2007 @ 9:18 pm