Roanoke

No. 19 Florida Atlantic hands Virginia Tech lopsided loss

K.Wilson3 months ago

KISSIMMEE, Fla. — At game's end Sunday, one team stayed on the court, donned Mickey Mouse hats and posed for photos with a trophy and with Mickey Mouse himself.

The other team walked off the court having suffered its most lopsided defeat in 11 years.

The 19th-ranked Florida Atlantic men's basketball team squashed Virginia Tech 84-50 in the title game of the ESPN Events Invitational on Sunday at Walt Disney World Resort's ESPN Wide World of Sports complex.

"That's a tough, tough match. They're as good as advertised," Tech coach Mike Young said of the Owls.

The Hokies (5-2) suffered their most lopsided loss since falling by 36 points to Colorado State in the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic in December 2012.

Virginia Tech missed its first 15 3-point attempts of the game.

"We got some good looks at it. I know I had a couple good looks in the first half they didn't drop," said Tech guard Hunter Cattoor, who finished 0 of 8 from 3-point range. "They just do a good job of making things tough. They switch everything.

"Sometimes we handled that well and we got some good shots. And other times, I think we took good shots, we didn't take great shots. And at the end of the day, when you play a good team like FAU, that's not going to work."

The Hokies, who did not make a 3-pointer until there was just 3:24 left in the game, finished 2 of 17 from that distance. They had their worst 3-point field-goal percentage (11.8%) since a February 2019 game against Virginia.

"We were very conscious every possession of how capable they are from behind the 3-point line — their range, their movement. So our guys took it as a personal challenge to take away the 3-point line," FAU coach Dusty May said. "When you switch and you get them out of their system a little bit, they're not as comfortable because their system's so good. So I do think we defended really, really well about 90% of those possessions. And then the other 10%, I think they were kind of looking around to see where our guys were going to be coming from."

Cattoor was 0 of 8 from 3-point range, while Sean Pedulla was 0 of 4.

"They're really gritty on the defensive end. They like to switch a lot of stuff," Cattoor said. "But at the end of the day, you've still got to play basketball. You've got to find different ways to score."

Cattoor and Pedulla each scored 11 points.

"Shooting the ball and scoring is just a little part of what the game of basketball is," Cattoor said. "I could've been better in [other] areas — getting teammates open, getting assists, on the defensive end. It sucks not making shots, but there's more to the basketball game than that."

The Hokies shot just 33.3% from the field.

Florida Atlantic (5-1), which returned all but one player from a team that reached the Final Four last season, went 3-0 to win the tournament.

"Three games in four days, ... this environment's advantageous to us and our depth and our speed and our athleticism," May said. "Our guys had edge, they had bounce. I thought we were very, very disruptive and we were able to get [the Hokies] out of their rhythm and ... off of their timing."

Virginia Tech went 2-1 in the tournament, including wins over Boise State and Iowa State.

"A lot of teams would like to come out of here 2-1," Young said. "We did it. Wish we played better today."

The Owls shot a sizzling 65% from the field in the second half.

"The second half, ... we didn't just bring the intensity that we needed to to get back in the game," Cattoor said.

Leading 25-24 with 4:39 left in the first half, FAU scored the final seven points of the first half and the first 12 points of the second half to build a 44-24 cushion with 16:29 to go. Tech missed 12 shots in that stretch.

"[There were] little things, mental errors that you can't commit in a championship game," Cattoor said of Tech's play in that run.

Leading 56-39, the Owls went on a 15-0 run to build a 71-39 cushion with 6:52 to go. Tech was shooting 31% from the field in the game to FAU's 57% at that point. Tech was 0 of 13 from 3-point territory at that point, while FAU was 9 of 21.

"Your defense has to travel night in and night out," Young said. "We were really good on Friday [against Iowa State]. I thought we were very good over the long haul against Boise. ... We got back on our heels [Sunday] and we didn't respond very well."

FAU guard Alijah Martin had 16 points and eight rebounds, earning tournament most valuable player honors.

Vladislav Goldin, the Owls' 7-foot-1 center, had 14 points. He was 7 of 7 from the field.

Virginia Tech guard MJ Collins fell to the court while driving to the basket with 4:29 left in the game. Young said he did not know Collins' status for Wednesday's game at Auburn.

Redshirt freshman Patrick Wessler made his Tech debut in the final minutes.

Mark Berman (540) 981-3125

MEN'S BASKETBALL

No. 19 FAU 84, Va. Tech 50

NEXT GAME

Va. Tech at Auburn

Wednesday, 9:15 p.m., ESPN2

FAU 84, Virginia Tech 50

FAU (5-1)

Goldin 7-7 0-0 14, Davis 5-8 0-0 12, Gaffney 4-7 0-0 9, Martin 5-9 4-4 17, Weatherspoon 2-8 0-0 6, Greenlee 4-6 1-1 10, Lorient 1-6 0-0 2, Rosado 2-3 1-2 5, Carroll 2-3 3-3 7, Gaines 1-1 0-1 2, Beath 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-58 9-11 84.

VIRGINIA TECH (5-2)

Beran 0-2 0-0 0, Kidd 4-8 1-2 9, Cattoor 4-13 3-3 11, Collins 1-6 0-0 2, Pedulla 5-16 1-1 11, Nickel 1-2 0-0 2, Long 1-5 0-0 2, Poteat 2-3 2-4 6, Rechsteiner 1-2 0-1 3, Young 0-1 0-0 0, Camden 1-2 0-0 3, Wessler 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 20-60 8-13 50.

Halftime—FAU 32-24. 3-Point Goals—FAU 9-22 (Martin 3-4, Davis 2-3, Weatherspoon 2-8, Gaffney 1-2, Greenlee 1-2, Carroll 0-1, Lorient 0-2), Virginia Tech 2-17 (Camden 1-1, Rechsteiner 1-1, Collins 0-1, Nickel 0-1, Young 0-1, Pedulla 0-4, Cattoor 0-8). Rebounds—FAU 39 (Martin 8), Virginia Tech 23 (Long 9). Assists—FAU 16 (Gaffney 6), Virginia Tech 8 (Beran, Pedulla, Nickel, Long, Poteat, Rechsteiner, Young, Wessler 1). Total Fouls—FAU 15, Virginia Tech 10.

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