The play, the one that ultimately decided a frenetic rivalry game, called for three options. The decision belonged to junior guard Andrew Rohde.
A three-pointer for junior guard Isaac McKneely. A shot for senior guard Taine Murray. Or a lob to redshirt freshman center Anthony Robinson, for a dunk, a play that had already worked a couple times. That was the primary option. That was the one Rohde, who missed a potential last-second game-winner two weeks ago against the same opponent, chose.
Robinson, with just over a minute left in a one-point game full of back-and-forth late action, set a high screen and executed the play that, he said, often failed in practice. It worked this time. The resulting 73-70 lead lasted until the final buzzer, and the Cavaliers (13-12, 6-8 ACC) snapped a four-game losing streak against the Hokies (11-14, 6-8 ACC) at Cassell Coliseum.
Interim Coach Ron Sanchez drew up the play. Then he left it to his point guard.
“He’s had back-to-back games with nine assists,” Sanchez said. “At that point in the game, we are going to put the ball in his hands and trust that he’s going to make the right decision.”
Virginia Tech managed one final opportunity, racing upcourt after a defensive rebound with 10 seconds left. In hindsight, Virginia Tech Coach Mike Young said, he may have called a timeout. But the floor looked open, everything “broken down.”
Senior forward Ben Burnham’s corner three-pointer missed. That was all. Despite the comeback that had looked almost inexorable from its start late in the first half, despite the roaring home crowd in a stadium that feels, depending on your perspective, either claustrophobic or cozy, despite at least one possibly broken nose, Virginia had survived, getting a third consecutive win for the first time since its first three games of the season.
“I’ve always wanted to win here,” McKneely said. “It’s a super fun environment to play in your rivalry game. You get up for games like these. So super happy with the win.”
The win vaulted Virginia to 10th in the ACC, in a logjam of five teams with identical records. It also likely dispelled any remaining worry of missing the conference tournament.
At the center of it all came McKneely, scoring 22 points and going 6-14 on three-pointers. He peeled around screens again and again, rising, hitting the shot, then turning and dancing back on defense, a man brimming with, he said, “a lot of confidence,” almost impossible to stop.
“Don’t cut the screen,” Young said, about stopping him. “Chase it. Make him curl.”
Virginia Tech tried. But McKneely kept finding windows for his shots, kept hitting them.
His dominance mirrored, on the other side, Virginia Tech’s Tobi Lawal. At one point in the first half, Lawal had 16 of his team’s 21 points, and he had 19 by halftime. He finished with 23.
“We did make some adjustments,” Sanchez said, then smiled. “Not gonna tell you what they were. But he was the focus.”
Ben Hammond picked up some of the slack for the Hokies in the second half, scoring 11 points in total. The Hokies clawed their way back. Virginia had surged out ahead, leading 32-17 at one point in the first half. But they knew, even from the beginning, what would happen.
“We said, ‘They’re gonna go on a run, they’re gonna go on a run,’” McKneely said.
The lead dwindled. Things rocketed back and forth toward the end. In the last eight minutes, it went from a four-point game at the six-minute mark to a three-point game at four minutes to a two-point game at three minutes to a one-point game at two minutes. Then, eventually, came the final dunk.
Robinson contributed in more ways than just that play. He scored 15 points, a six-point improvement over his previous career high of nine, in just 18 minutes. Seven of those points came from the free-throw line, a destination from which he entered shooting 58 percent.
With 3:35 left, and the gap at 66-61, Robinson stepped to the line again. He calmly stroked one through, confident in his ability as a free-throw shooter. Then came a timeout. Sanchez pulled him aside. They talked. About?
“A lot of different things,” Sanchez said. “Except the free throws. What I wanted him to do was not think about the free throws.”
Robinson came out and drilled the second. He seemed calm and comfortable speaking after the game, just as he did at the line, just as he did all game. Even though the environment hardly matched that.
A halftime tussle heading into the locker room delivered three technical fouls, one each to Rohde and junior guard Elijah Saunders and one to Virginia Tech’s Tyler Johnson.
“Some choice words,” McKneely said. “It’s a rivalry game. That’s gonna happen.”
Murray, in his last chance to win on his biggest rival’s court, bloodied his nose diving for a loose ball. Sanchez said it might be broken. That was a small price to pay, though, for a win that meant so much.
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