No. 16 Virginia Tech Defeats Ball State in the First Round of the Charleston Classic

(Image via heraldcourier.com)

In the first round of the Charleston Classic the 16th ranked Hokies defeated the Ball State Cardinals with a score of 73-64. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Justin Robinson and Kerry Blackshear were major contributors in the Hokies win.

Recap

Virginia Tech had a very up and down day. The Hokies started the game out tremendously shooting 4-6 from 3-point range but went on to miss their next 9, 3-point attempts and found themselves 4-15 from behind the arc. Late in the first half the Hokies went on a 19-5 run and ended the half up 43-29. Virginia Tech started off slow in the 2nd half scoring only 6 points in the first 7 minutes. This allowed Ball State to keep up with Virginia Tech for most of the game. With 7 and a half minutes left in the game Justin Robinson threw an alley-oop off the back board to Ahmed Hill which gave the Hokies the momentum they needed to pull away.

Player of the Game

Nickeil Alexander-Walker had another strong game for the Hokies. Nickeil put up 21 points shooting 9-15 from the field and 2-5 from behind the arc. He also added 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. With back-to-back 21 point games, Nickeil is emerging as a major weapon for the Hokies.

Up Next

Virginia Tech moves on to the 2nd round and will play the winner of Alabama vs Northeastern tomorrow at 2pm EDT.

Ball State will play the loser of Alabama and Northeastern in the losers bracket tomorrow at 2pm EDT.