CORAL GABLES, Fla. – In one of his most impressive performances to date, sophomore Nickeil Alexander-Walker went off to lead No. 12/11 Virginia Tech's men's basketball team to an 82-70 win over Miami (Fla.) at Watsco Center on Wednesday night.
The guard filled up his stat line with tying a season-high 25 points, four rebounds, five assists and a career-high six steals, leading the Hokies (17-3, 6-2 ACC) to their sixth win in the month of January. Chris Lykes led the way for the Hurricanes (9-11, 1-7), posting a team-high 19 points and four assists.
Alexander-Walker got Tech started in the early going, scoring nine of Tech's first 13 points to give it a one-point lead at 13-12 the first 10 minutes of play. Miami's Anthony Lawrence made a layup to give the Hurricanes their biggest lead of the game at three, 18-15, but the Hokies responded with a 10-0 run behind Alexander-Walker and senior Justin Robinson scoring five points each to regain the lead it would not relent.
Graduate student Ty Outlaw hit a 3-pointer and Alexander-Walker made a 15-footer, giving Tech a 34-27 halftime lead. Redshirt sophomore Kerry Blackshear Jr. had eight rebounds in just 10 minutes of action in the first frame.
The second half began with a hot start for Tech, as graduate student Ahmed Hill connected from downtown out of an inbounds play and on the ensuing possession, Wabissa Bede drilled a 3-pointer to force a Miami timeout not even one minute after intermission.
The Hokies would keep their momentum, as Alexander-Walker swiped a steal at mid-court and slammed it home, followed by a three-point play by Robinson to give them a 15-point advantage (47-32) at the 16:46 mark.
Trailing by as many as 21 points, the 'Canes would start chipping away at the deficit and cut it to 11 twice. But Tech kept its foot on the pedal and would never allow Miami to trim it to single digits behind Outlaw hitting two 3-pointers in the final minutes.
QUOTING HEAD COACH BUZZ WILLIAMS
On the second-half play and what went into that fast start:
"I thought it was important that we started good in the second half," Williams said. "I think we lost two ATO timeouts in the first half, one by two points and one by three. So, I thought it was really important that we started on the right note on both ends. I think anytime you can shoot over 50 percent in a half is good. If you can shoot free throws in double digits, I think that's good, too."
On Nickeil Alexander-Walker's performance:
"I think he is a really good player," Williams said. "We are grateful that he's here. He's an unbelievable kid and is very important to our team. At times, I thought he played incredibly well tonight."
NOTES
- For the ninth time this season, Alexander-Walker dropped 20 or more points. The nine 20-point games make him tied for third-most in the ACC on the season. The Toronto native also had his best two-game stretch of distributing, with five dimes tonight and eight against Syracuse last Saturday for a total of 13.
- Alexander-Walker's six steals tied the most-ever by a Hokie in an ACC game and the most since Feb. 20, 2008, when Hank Thorns swiped six versus Maryland.
- Robinson finished with 17 points for the second time in his last three games, averaging 23.0 over that span. He also chipped in two rebounds, three assists and two steals.
- Hill was critical in the second half, pacing the Hokies on the offensive end by scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second stanza. He shot 6 of 9 from the field and collected five rebounds.
STAT OF THE GAME
- Coming into tonight's game, Tech shot 40 percent from the field in away games. After shooting a blistering 68 percent in the second half, the Hokies finished with a 58-percent clip for the game – their highest shooting percentage on the road this season. It marks the highest percentage in a road game in the Buzz Williams era since Dec. 16, 2017, against Kentucky in Rupp Arena.
TWEET OF THE GAME
Nickeil Alexander-Walker was in the zone tonight! He finished with 2⃣5⃣points, 5⃣assists and 6⃣steals!#getBETTER🦃(@HokiesMBB, @TheReal_NAW1) pic.twitter.com/UGY1mywmv8
— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) January 31, 2019
WHAT IS NEXT
- The Hokies will continue their two-game road swing in league play, heading to Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday to take on No. 23/22 NC State at noon ET.