Kembali
Jaylen Curry had two points at halftime in Sioux City, Iowa.
He scored 23 after it, nine of them in overtime, and passed 1,000 career points along the way as Virginia Tech (3-0) beat Iowa 93-88 on Tuesday night at the Tyson Events Center.
The Hokies needed every one of them. Iowa shot 47 free throws, grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and led by as many as five in the second half. Ben Hammond answered with a career-high 32 points. And for the first time this season, Tech won without a big turnover edge, forcing 14 and committing 12.
Hammond’s line didn’t have a wasted possession in it. The junior guard went 9-for-16 from the field, 3-for-5 from three and 11-for-11 at the line, and he didn’t turn it over once in 33 minutes. He had 15 points by halftime, the last three on a three-pointer at the buzzer that put Tech up 41-40.
Iowa coach Ben McCollum said afterward that his defense “left the ball every possession” against Virginia Tech’s ball screens. Hammond made it cost something. He scored 17 more after halftime, including the free throws and drive that put Tech up 76-75 with 1:51 left in regulation.
Through three games, he’s 19-of-20 at the line with 16 assists and two turnovers, and he’s averaging 22.7 points.
The one mark against him was his fifth foul. Hammond fouled Ty’Reek Coleman on a pull-up jumper with 1.4 seconds left in regulation, which gave Coleman two free throws to win it. He made one. Tech played overtime without its leading scorer and won the period 14-9 anyway.
Curry’s night nearly went the other way. With the game tied at 78 and 6.1 seconds left, Iowa’s Cam Manyawu fouled him on a three-point attempt. Curry missed the first two free throws and made the third.
Overtime belonged to him. He scored Tech’s first five points of the extra period, including a three-pointer, and hit a jumper that made it 88-85. His nine overtime points matched Iowa’s total for the period.
The senior finished 9-of-18 from the field with 25 points, and he’s averaging 19.3 through three games. His 1,000th career point came Tuesday, too, in a career that started at UMass and ran through Oklahoma State. He gets his old team on Nov. 22 in the Charleston Classic.
Virginia Tech’s first two wins ran through its defense. Coppin State and Mercer combined for 42 turnovers. Iowa started the same way, with seven turnovers in the first eight minutes and nine by halftime.
Then the Hawkeyes cleaned it up. They turned it over five times in the final 25 minutes, and Tech still scored 52 points in that stretch.
That’s the version of this team that has to show up in the ACC. Tech shot 53.6% from the field, went 7-of-18 from three, and made 26 of 33 free throws. Isaiah Elohim gave the guards some help with 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting and a team-high six rebounds, three of them offensive. Amani Hansberry added 16.
Iowa finished 15th in last season’s final AP poll after its run to the Elite Eight. It’s the best win on the schedule so far, and it came on a night the defense didn’t do the scoring for the offense.
Iowa grabbed 18 offensive rebounds. Virginia Tech grabbed 17 defensive rebounds.
The Hawkeyes got back over half of their own misses and turned them into 18 second-chance points. They won the boards 40-26.
Isaia Howard had a career-high 15 rebounds by himself. Elohim, a guard, led Tech with six. Hansberry, Tech's leading rebounder from last season, finished with just three on the night.
Before Iowa, the Hokies had committed 41 fouls in two games against Coppin State and Mercer. Against a better opponent, that number hit 30 in one night. Iowa shot 47 free throws to Tech’s 33 and made five more of them, which also happened to be the final margin.
Five Hokies finished with at least four fouls. Hammond and Heide fouled out, and Curry, Musa Sagnia, and Sin’Cere Jones had four apiece. Tech was called for 15 in the first half alone, plus a technical on coach Mike Young.
Heide’s night is the one to worry about. The San Diego State transfer was 5-for-5 from the field through two games. Against Iowa, he lasted just 10 minutes, didn’t take a shot, and fouled out with one point and three rebounds. Heide, Sagnia, and Solomon Davis played 25 minutes combined and finished with one point, four rebounds, and nine fouls.
Mount St. Mary’s visits Cassell Coliseum on Friday at 7 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra as the Hokies look to improve to 4-0.