Game Recap | Hokies Win On Hokie Day! VT (2-0) 69, ewu (1-4) 52

Virginia Tech kicked off Hokie Day in fine fashion with an easy win over the offensively inept eastern washington eagles 69-52 in the opening round of the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage, Alaska. The Hokies will face #23 butler in the next round on Friday (no game today) at 9:30 EST. butler cruised to a 79-65 win over michigan earlier in the night.

Four of the five starting Hokies reached double figures in points, and Malcolm Delaney added a team-high 18 off the bench. Even more impressive, the Hokies drained 10 three-pointers on 20 attempts. That’s the most three’s made in a game since the Hokies made 10 against unc-greensboro on January 10, 2007.*

Terrell Bell made his Hokie debut in this game, playing five minutes off the bench in his return following hernia surgery. But it was Malcolm Delaney who stole the show — he was 4/6 on three’s and 6/9 from the field overall. Malcolm had just 2 points in VT’s first game against elon.

Jeff Allen, who was the ACC Rookie of the Week a week ago, added 12 points and 8 rebounds (still not going to say he is VT’s best post player since Ace Custis… but I’m thinking it!). He also had 2 steals, giving him 6 on the season after just 2 games.

Hank Thorns added 14 points on 5/6 shooting and 2/3 on three’s. Thorns and Delaney combined for 32 points in this game after scoring just 6 combined points in the elon game.

A.D. Vassallo had 11 points and Deron Washington had 10 for Tech.

The Hokies held ewu to under 40% shooting and did a good job on the boards, outrebounding the short eagles 31-24. The Hokies did give up 8 offensive rebounds, but considering the eagles missed 28 shots and 8 free throws, that isn’t such a bad figure. The Hokies shot 51% from the floor, and were a decent (but not good) 9/14 from the line (64%).

The Hokies led 30-18 at the intermission and the eagles never got closer than 7 in the second stanza.

Nine Hokies played in all, with Allen, Diakite, Washington, Vassallo and Thorns starting, and Bell, Thompson, Witcher, and Delaney coming off the bench.

Reasons why Niemo is a genius:

I said in my preview that if VT scores 69, they will win (maybe I should play the lottery today since that’s exactly what the Hokies scored).
I said Malcolm Delaney would be a stud. Well, at least he was for one game. Let’s see how he does against a very good butler team.

Reasons why Niemo is an idiot:

I said VT would dominate inside against the shorter team. VT did win the rebounding battle, but that has a lot to do with all the misses ewu had. It was actually the guards that led the attack for the Hokies.

*Note: The Hokies only made double digit three’s in three games last year, all of which were out of conference games.

Photo Gallery

Other Recaps:
UAA Sports Information
HokieSports.com
Roanoke Times

Posted by: