Spartans Fall Short in Blacksburg

UNCG 46- Virginia Tech 59

News & Record
Roanoke Times
UNCG Athletics
Va Tech Athletics

There were four lead changes and the score was tied 8 times last night. However, an 11-0 Virginia Tech run midway through the second half sealed the Spartans fate. A good first half that saw UNCG head to the locker room tied at 26, was follow by a not-so-good second half that saw UNCG struggle to score 20 points.

Positives
- Big D --- UNCG played tremendous defense throughout the evening. Their zone defense forced the Hokies to jack up a lot of 3's and only hit 1 (1-13, 7.7%).
- Mikko --- After a super quiet game in Durham on Friday night, Mikko Koivisto had a solid game. His 2 first half 3's sparked UNCG.
- Rebounding --- UNCG out rebounded Virginia Tech 38-37.
- Road toughness --- For the second straight game, UNCG showed some toughness and moxie by playing hard (and in this case being very competitive) in a tough environment.

Negatives
- Turnovers - 23 turnovers leading to 27 points. A lot of the turnovers weren't really forced ones either. Unfortunately, UNCG will see a lot of pressure defense on Friday when Clemson pays a trip to the coliseum. Hopefully, Coach Dement can get the guys to clean up that problem quickly.
- Opposition offensive rebounds --- While UNCG did a good job out rebound Va Tech, they did give up a bunch of offensive rebounds (18). This was a problem in game #1 and was a problem again last night.
- Offense --- The Spartans shot 35.3% (29.2% in the second half) in Blacksburg and 40% last Friday night at Duke. At some point the offense needs to come alive. Now, I'm sure that playing ACC competition has an awful lot to do with the low production numbers. Maybe getting to shoot in a familiar gym will help with the percentages in the coming games.