Hunter Cattoor explains why win over NC State was 'huge' for Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech entered Saturday’s game against NC State having lost four of its past five games. The Hokies ended their skid in impressive fashion, earning an 84-78 road win over the Wolfpack.

Instead of falling to 2-5 in ACC play, Virginia Tech improved to 3-4 with the win. The Hokies now have three straight home games coming up as they look to climb the ACC standings.

Virginia Tech guard Hunter Cattoor joined the CW crew after leading the Hokies with a 19-point outing in the victory. The senior explained why the win was so important for Virginia Tech.

“It’s huge,” Cattoor said. “It’s tough to win road games in the ACC. To come in here and play a good team in NC State and come out with this one, it was huge for us before we return home for these next three games.”

Virginia Tech won, despite turning the ball over 12 times in the first half. Even with the turnover struggles, the Hokies held a 33-32 lead at the break.

That gave Hokies coach Mike Young confidence that if his team could protect the ball better in the second half, it would come out on top.

“He was saying we turned it over 12 times, which is awful to think about, but we were still up 1 going into halftime,” Cattoor explained. “So if we handled the ball in the second half and kept doing what we were doing, we were going to be OK.”

Virginia Tech had another eight turnovers in the second half, but the Hokies shot 62.5 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3 and knocked down 15 of 19 free throws to secure the win.

Virginia Tech led by as many as 14 points in the second half and held on late. Cattoor finished with 19 points, despite rolling his ankle in the final minutes. He knocked down clutch free throws in the final seconds and scored 16 of his 19 points in the second half.

“I’m doing good. You weren’t going to take me out at the end of that game. We had to finish it off, so I’m excited we got the win,” Cattoor said.

“I feel like in the second half, it was tight, it was going back and forth, and I feel like we got to the point where we had to take this game over. If we were going to win, we had to take it. We were in the huddle just staying connected and that was the main focus.”

Up next, Virginia Tech will host Boston College, Georgia Tech and Duke.