USA Today box score

Pittsburgh, PA -- The Pittsburgh Panthers outscored the Hokies 29-11 over the last fifteen minutes of the game to pull away from Tech and send them to their ninth straight defeat, 70-51.

With 15:31 to go, Tech's Brian Chase hit a three-pointer to make the score 41-40, Pittsburgh, but over the next twelve and a half minutes, the Hokies only scored 7 points. When Tech made a bucket with 3:12 to go, it was 63-47, Pittsburgh, and the game was long out of reach.

Pittsburgh took a quick 9-0 lead in this game, but the Hokies used a handful of three-pointers to close the gap to 21-17. From there, the two teams fought evenly to the end of the half, with Pittsburgh taking a 34-31 into the locker room at the break.

At that point, the Hokies were playing well, outrebounding Pittsburgh 20-15 and accumulating 9 assists against just 4 turnovers.

Tech appeared to be fairly comfortable early in the second half, and the Hokies were able to trim the margin to one point twice, but the Panthers defense clamped down, and Pittsburgh gradually pulled away. Tech was not as successful taking care of the basketball in the second half, turning it over 12 times and taking just 20 shots after half time.

Although the Hokies shot well from three-point range early, their accuracy from behind the arc disappeared as the game wore on, and Tech shot just 4-15 (26.7%) on three-pointers for the game. Tech was 22-53 (41.5%) overall for the game.

The Hokies were not successful drawing fouls on the Panthers. Pittsburgh was whistled for just 10 fouls, and Tech was just 3-4 from the free throw line for the game. Tech committed 15 fouls, many of them shooting fouls, and Pittsburgh went 14-23 from the line. Mibindo Dongo committed four fouls in just 11 minutes, compromising the already-suspect Virginia Tech inside game.

The loss ends the season for the Hokies, who will not be going to the Big East Tournament. Tech finishes 7th in the Big East's East Division, and only the top 6 teams in each division travel to New York to play in the 12-team tournament.

Tech ends the season 8-19 overall, 2-14 in the Big East. The Hokies, who were once 7-7, lost their last 9 games and 12 of their last 13.

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