WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Seeking a fourth straight victory over Wake Forest, the Virginia Tech men's basketball team took down the Demon Deacons 80-70 on Tuesday Night inside LJVM Coliseum.
Tyrece Radford recorded his second-ever double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds, as the Hokies (13-4, 4-2 ACC) blew past Wake Forest (8-8, 1-5) in a road contest, getting up by as many as 20 points. The Hokies have now defeated Wake for the fourth consecutive time and third straight time in Winston-Salem.
Mike Young is 2-0 in his career against Wake Forest and 1-0 against the Demon Deacons head coach Danny Manning. Young is also the first hokie Head Coach to win three out of his first four ACC road outings.
The Hokies saw vital contributions from redshirt freshman Landers Nolley, who scored 21 points, and the North Carolina native Jalen Cone, who put up 15 points. Freshman Nahiem Alleyne registered 10 points and junior Wabissa Bede dished out nine assists, with being one shy of tying his career high.
Tech caused an ACC-high 18 turnovers while also capitalizing off of Wake miscues, scoring 19 points off those mistakes. Defensively, Tech had a season-high 11 steals with Radford swiping four of his own to set a career high.
THE GAME
The first half was back and forth action throughout as there were five lead changes and two ties. With just under 10 minutes to go in the first, Nolley nailed a jumper followed by a triple from Cone to give Tech a 20-10 lead.
Wake went on a 21-5 run from this point to reclaim the lead at 31-25. But Nolley responded late in the first half, including four straight free throws, to give Tech a 33-31 lead at the break.
With just under 15 minutes to go in the second half, Cone drilled back-to-back 3-pointers along with a jumper giving Tech a 53-42 lead. With 11 minutes left in the contest, Alleyne hit from downtown, which sparked an 11-0 run to give Tech a 66-46 lead. The Hokies cruised through the rest of the game, winning 80-70
NOTES
- Radford, who posted a career-high 18 points in Tech's last game, topped that game with three new career highs in points (21), rebounds (13) and steals (4).
- Nolley recorded his 15th game this season of reaching double-figures and his seventh 20-point performance.
- Nolley and Radford each record 21 points, which is the first time two Tech players have scored 20-plus points since Nickeil Alexander-Walker (25 points) and Kerry Blackshear (20) since Jan. 5, 2019 against Boston College.
- Cone scored 15 points in the victory, which is now his sixth game reaching double figures in scoring and third straight game of doing so (19 at Syracuse, 10 vs. NC State).
UP NEXT
The Hokies will look for a season sweep against Syracuse when they take on the Orange (9-7, 2-3) on Saturday at noon at Cassell Coliseum.
Gallery: (1/14/2020) 2020 MEN'S BASKETBALL at WAKE FOREST