Guard Seth Allen led a balanced scoring attack with 20 points as Virginia Tech turned away Florida State 96-85 in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament’s second round Wednesday night at the Verizon Center in Washington. It didn’t help that Georgia Tech’s leading scorer, Marcus Georges-Hunt, missed a few minutes in the second half when he crashed to the court after rising up to block a shot.
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Right from the get-go, the Cavaliers (25-6) – to the delight of a partisan crowd – made things tough for Georgia Tech (19-14), which started 0 for 4 on field-goal tries, settling for off-balance heaves late in the shot clock.
The third-seeded Hurricanes take on second-seeded Virginia, which thumped Georgia Tech 72-52 in the evening session’s first quarterfinal, in Friday’s semifinals.
Adam Smith had 23 points and Nick Jacobs added 12 for the Yellow Jackets. Gregory kept his team together through another miserable first half of the ACC schedule.
Everyone knows what Brogdon can do, but players such as Nolte (six points) and Mike Tobey (nine points) played roles, too, including when it came to Virginia’s typical stingy defense, which held Georgia Tech to a season-low-tying point total.
He stayed down for a bit, then shuffled slowly toward the locker room.
Brogdon finished with a game-high 26 points, and U.Va. stretched its lead out in the second half.
“These guys, when they were your age, interrupted their life, they paused their education, they changed their career, and they gave their life for those chairs”, Williams said. A layup by Brogdon made it 67-45.
“I think it’s more unconscious than conscious”, Brogdon said of his ability to put his team on his shoulders when needed. All four top seeds won, with No. 7 North Carolina and defending tournament champion Notre Dame advancing to the other semifinal.
Virginia, so ruthlessly efficient in its regular-season finale against Louisville, didn’t look quite so sharp in the first half of its ACC tournament opener Thursday.
Nothing worked, and Miami can now turn its focus to Virginia.
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Virginia Tech: The Hokies’ streak of eight consecutive conference victories that snapped was their longest since 1964-65 when they played in the Southern Conference.
