The Hokie crowd erupted after Ron Patterson's two free throws clanked off the rim. Suddenly, Syracuse's 22 point lead had dwindled down to two. The Hokies, who couldn't buy a shot at times in the first half, couldn't miss in the final few minutes. Virginia Tech had the momentum, the crowd behind them and, somehow, a one-possession game with four seconds left in the game.
But Malik Muller's three pointer from the left corner fell a bit short at the buzzer. Despite a late onslaught, the Hokies were never able to tie the game in the second half. The Orange narrowly held on and escaped Cassell Coliseum with a 68-66 win over familiar foe, Buzz Williams, in the team's ACC season opener.
"A win is a win," Trevor Cooney told Cuse.com. "The last times we were in close games we lost so it feels good to be in a close game in the end and win. But when you're up 20 points in the second half, you got to close them out."
It looked like Syracuse was well on its way to an easy victory after Michael Gbinije knocked down a smooth three-pointer with 2:51 left in the first half. That gave Syracuse a 40-18 lead, its biggest of the game. The Orange took advantage of an undersized and undermanned Hokies, who came into the game 276th in rebounding. To make matters worse, Virginia Tech didn't have its leading rebounder, Joey van Zegeren, who was suspended indefinitely this week.
Tyler Roberson tied a career high with 17 rebounds, which helped limit the Hokies to just one shot on most first half possessions.
Still, the Hokies managed to expose many of Syracuse's lingering problems in the second half even without van Zegeren and with forwards Shane Henry and Satchel Pierce in foul trouble.
The Hokies stormed back just after intermission with a quick 10-0 run, which cut the lead down to single digits. Syracuse missed four straight shots in that span and Kaleb Joseph's double-dribble gave the ball away on another possession.
"We just got to keep playing on defense," Rakeem Christmas said. "In the second half, we didn't play our defense that we were playing the first half and they started scoring."
The Orange offense ran smoothly early on, in large part because of Christmas. He used his height advantage to score ten points by the half. Then Syracuse stopped getting him the ball in the paint, a mistake that almost cost the Orange the game. Christmas finished the game with 17 points, a byproduct of a few late free throws rather than an active second half. He didn't score for the first 12 minutes of the second half and, on many possessions, didn't even get a touch.
When Syracuse was pressured or was forced to take outside shots, it faltered once again. The Orange opted to take 21 threes even with its size advantage, only converting on 29 percent of those attempts.
Finally, Devin Wilson hit a pair of free throws that got Virginia Tech within two with 6:35 remaining. But Syracuse responded with an 11-2 run. The Orange squandered that advantage by missing nine of 15 free throws in the last two minutes of the game. The Hokies, meanwhile, hit shots on four straight possessions, which set up a chance for a game-winning three at the buzzer. But two Orange defenders forced Muller to take a contested fadeaway three and his shot didn't even reach the rim.
Said Roberson, "It's not the way we wanted to win it. But it's a win and we'll take it."