No. 1 Duke Falls to Virginia Tech on the Road in ACC Play

Posted by James Patterson on February-26-2011 Add Comments

In the end, Cassell Coliseum was no place for a Curry.

With his father, former Hokie star Dell Curry in the stands watching, Seth Curry had one of his worst performances of the season and turned the ball over in the final seconds as No. 1 Duke fell at Virginia Tech 64-60.

Curry struggled not only with his shooting touch all night, finishing with zero points, but couldn’t stay out of foul trouble. The sophomore spent most of the second half on the bench, only to come back into the game with about two minutes left. With Duke down by three points, Curry turned the ball over on a poor pass, only to commit his fifth foul in the game on the other end of the floor. The foul put Jeff Allen on the line, who hit one out of two to seal the game for Virginia Tech.

The game was a must-win for the Hokies, who are teetering on the edge of the NCAA Tournament bubble yet again and in need of a marquee win.

They got it against the Blue Devils, who got a combined 40 points from Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith. But Duke couldn’t stop Virginia Tech’s Jeff Allen, who torched the Devils on the boards, racking up 14 rebounds to go along with 18 points.

Duke did a masterful job keeping the Hokies’ leading scorer Malcolm Delaney in check for most of the game. Delaney finished with 11 points on just 4-14 shooting from the floor, but hit a clutch three-pointer with 2:07 left to put Virginia Tech up by five points.

Duke once again struggled on the road in a hostile environment, especially from three-point range, shooting just 4-for-19 from beyond the arc.

With the win, Virginia Tech moves to 9-5 in conference play. Duke falls to 12-2 in the ACC and 26-3 overall.

Read more College Basketball news on BleacherReport.com

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