Photo Credit: Liam Sment
#15 Virginia Tech had their worst game of the season by far while Penn State had their best of the season. In that collision came an ugly rout that proved Penn State is going to be a force in the Big 10 and gave the Hokies a game to try to move on from quickly.
Virginia Tech fell to Penn State in a 75-55 loss that drops the Hokies to 4-1 and will certainly send them crashing out of the rankings next week. Meanwhile, Penn State improves to 3-1 with their lone loss coming in an overtime game against Seton Hall, proving to be underrated from what most thought before the season.
Penn State came out with an insane high level of intensity and a high pressure defense, including lots of three-quarter court press, that through the Hokies all out of sorts from to get go. Turnovers were the biggest disparity as the Nittany Lions only had 5 compared to 14 for the Hokies. Penn State capitalized on that outscoring Tech 22-4 in points off turnovers, a major reason for their success.
Tech also struggled both from three and with their perimeter defense as the Hokies went 6-22 from three while Penn State was 12-23. Additionally, Tech was a poor 9-18 from the free-throw line and wasn't able to dominate the paint with a 22-22 points in the paint split.
Penn State also buried the Hokies with a 17-0 run early to give themselves a 17-3 lead before the first media timeout. That set Tech behind the eight ball and a combination of turnovers and great Penn State shooting buried the Hokies into a brutal loss.
Izaiah Brockington had a big night for Penn State with a game high 24 points on 10-14 shooting to go with 8 rebounds while Myreon Jones was 4-7 from three on his way to finishing with 14 points. Penn State also did this while seeing their leading scorer Seth Lundy held scoreless.
Jalen Cone led the Hokies in scoring with 11 points on 4-12 shooting including 3-8 from three as he was a spark early in the first half who started drawing the Hokies back within double digits briefly after the fast Penn State start.
Keve Aluma had a poor scoring night as he was held scoreless in the first half before finishing 4-11 with 8 points though he did have 11 rebounds. Nahiem Alleyne had 10 points on 3-8 shooting in this game while Cartier Diarra had 7 points on 2-4 shooting and Wabissa Bede had 7 points on 3-6 shooting.
Freshman Darius Maddox did make his debut for Virginia Tech after not playing in the first four games for the Hokies. Hunter Cattoor barely played in this game after dealing with issues related to strep throat according to head coach Mike Young.
This is one of those games that will be a rally cry for Penn State and one that Mike Young and his coaching staff will try to get out of his players' minds quickly and use any motivation to fuel prep for their ACC opener against Clemson. Of course, there are some concerns though as there is some chemistry that still has some work to do while Tech's three-point shooting continues to be inconsistent and somewhat lacking.
