Hokies Shut Down Seminoles 71-59

Jeff Allen had his best offensive game of the year and the Hokies took advantage of the free throw line en route to a 71-59 ACC victory over the Florida State Seminoles. The win was Tech’s sixth in a row and improved the Hokies’ ACC record to 1-1 while FSU fell to 1-1.

Trailing 19-17 with 6:43 remaining in the first half, the Hokies shut out the Seminoles for the remainder of the half in a 12-0 run to take a 29-19 lead into the locker room. The run coincided with a trapping Virginia Tech defense that forced six FSU turnovers and 11 straight empty possessions for the visitors. The ‘Noles committed 13 first half turnovers overall, erasing their 24-13 rebounding edge.

Florida State came out in the second half on a 12-5 run to cut the Hokies lead to three with 13 minutes remaining. But Tech immediately responded with a 9-2 run of their own to push the lead back up to 10. The ‘Noles wouldn’t go away, though, cutting the lead to four on a Luke Loucks three-pointer with 7:33 remaining. That was as close as FSU would get for the rest of the contest, as the Tech lead swelled to as many as 12, the final margin of victory.

Allen was the main reason for Tech’s offensive success, scoring 18 of his season-high 24 points in the second half. The senior added 11 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season and even made 10-of-12 from the free throw line.

As a team, Tech made 34-of-37 (91.9%) shots from the charity stripe including 24-of-27 in the critical second half. Coming into Saturday’s action, the Hokies were just 67.8 percent from the free throw line as a team.

The Hokies also benefited from some stout defense. Usually a man-to-man team, Tech utilized a 2-3 zone for the entire game in the half court, occasionally extending out into a 2-1-2 trap to confuse the hapless Seminoles. FSU shot 35.5 percent, and made just 7-of-24 (29.2%) from beyond the arc. Chris Singleton had 22 for FSU, but second-leading scorer Derwin Kitchen was held scoreless on five attempts.

Despite shooting just 2-of-9 from the field, Erick Green reached double digits for the sixth straight game (all starts) with 12 points thanks to a perfect 8-for-8 mark from the free throw line. Malcolm Delaney was also perfect from the free throw line (7-7) en route to a 13-point performance, even though he was just 3-of-10 from the field.

With their ACC record now even, the Hokies travel to Chapel Hill Thursday for their only meeting with North Carolina this season. Tip-off is set for 9pm on ESPN.