There’s no way to recap this game other than to say the Hokies choked. And I’m not talking “water down the air pipe” type of choke job, I’m talking turkey bone lodged in the throat requiring the Heimlich maneuver type of choke. The Hokies blew an eight-point lead with 80 seconds to go, allowing wake to tie it at 75 with 50 seconds to go. In case you are wondering how you blow an eight-point lead in 30 seconds, here’s how:

• Deron hit a FT to put VT up 75-67 with 1:20 to go.
• wake hit a three to make it 75-70 four seconds later (ie: no one even picked him up on D)
• A.D. took a three with 28 still on the shot clock up 5 and missed.
• wake’s smith drove right down and scored to make it 75-72 with 1:02 left with little resistance.
• Deron broke the press and got the ball to the three point line, but had no help and got stripped from behind.
• wake banked in a three with 51 seconds to go on a guy’s first shot of the game to tie the score at 75.

VT ran down the clock but a missed shot by Allen with the game tied gave wake the ball with 21 seconds to go. ishmael smith ran the clock down, penetrated with Delaney on him, then jumped to just right of the free throw line and hit a fallaway jumper from 18 feet with 0.5 seconds left to win the game, giving me that same sinking feeling I had after the game at duke two years ago, also in the ACC opener. Two of the shots by wake were extremely lucky, namely the banked three to tie the game and the fallaway at the end. Let’s see if this Hokie team can respond better than that team, which struggled its way on and off the court to a 4-12 ACC season.

VT nearly won this game with free throws. The Hokies had averaged just 10.6 made free throws per game through their first 10, but hit 29/32 free throws, their most makes at the charity stripe since last January 23rd when VT hit 34/42 from the line. Deron hit his first 10 despite being just a 63% FT shooter on the season.

Players of the Game: Jeff Allen, Deron Washington, A.D. Vassallo, and Dorenzo Hudson - Tech nearly won this game as a team, and these guys were the catalysts. They also lost it as a team with each of these guys making a critical mistake in the final 75 seconds. Vassallo led VT with 19, Allen had 16, including 12 in the second half, Deron had 13 on 11/12 free throws, and Hudson had 13 in his first real game action (he had only played four minutes total coming into the game.

Both A.D. and Deron had double-doubles with 19 points/11 boards and 13/14 respectively.

The Hokies trailed by nine at the half, setting a familiar storyline to their other two road games against penn state and odu, when they trailed by 10 and 12 at the half. As in those games, Tech kept the faith and came out in the second half and took it to the short-handed deacons.

VT used an 18-6 run to start the 2nd half to take a 52-51 lead with 13:25 left in the game. wake played part/most of the 2nd half with two of their top seven injured (skeen and williams) and three guys in foul trouble (mcfarland with four, johnson and williams fouled out).

Dorenzo Hudson made his presence felt in just his third game with the Hokies. He hit two three’s early in the 2nd half to get VT back in the game and had 13 total points, obviously a career high since he had not scored in his previous two games.

Even with this heartbreaking loss, there were a lot of positives to take away from the game:

• VT is undefeated in ACC against the odds, covering the +2.5 spread they faced! Yeah, I don’t care either. Not a sports gambler.
• Hudson is a pure shooter. Expect his minutes to go way up. He played 28 minutes in this game, 700% more than he had play in his career up until now.
• Allen got 12 touches inside the three point line in the second half after just four in the first half. VT needs to keep getting him the ball and they really focused on that tonight.
• This team has talent and could be a team that is in the middle of the ACC race by next season. The only problem is, it isn’t next season.
• Tech did a much better job of aggressively attacking the rim in this game, hence the 32 free throw attempts. Delaney is a slasher and that led to 8/8 on FTs for him.
• The Hokies now have three legitimate three-point shooters in Vassallo, Delaney, and Hudson. This should help stretch D’s and open up the inside for Allen, hence the extra touches for him.
• VT surpassed the 70-point mark in regulation for the first time all season. They also held wake to just 22 2nd half points until the final 76 seconds, when wake scored 10.
• Expect to see this lineup on the court most of the time from here on: Delaney (1), Hudson (2), Vassallo (3), Washington (4), Allen (5).

First Half

For the second straight road game, VT allowed 45 first-half points, in large part due to 14 turnovers. The Hokies couldn’t run their offense to start the game and lost their composure to end the first half. The result was a nine point halftime deficit: 45-36.

Tech turned the ball over on their first 3 possessions, allowing wake to jump out to an 11-2 lead at the first media timeout. Greenberg sent a message to the starters (the usual crew of Allen, Diakite, Washington, Vassallo, and Thorns) by benching all five guys and bringing in a fresh lineup. The result was a steal and a block by Terrell Bell and two buckets by Lewis Witcher that got VT back in the game.

The Hokies took their first lead just past the halfway point of the first half, going ahead 21-20, but wake followed with a 7-0 run.

Tech was an amazing 15/16 on free throws, including 14/14 by Delaney and Washington. The Hokies also shot over 50% for the first half, but hit just one three-pointer compared to five for wake. The killer for VT was 14 turnovers, compared to just 4 for wake. As I said in the preview, VT needed to stay close on rebounds and turnovers to win. wake has very quick hands on D and the Hokies struggled with this.

The Hokies lost their composure late in the half. Delaney was called for an intentional foul and Greenberg later got a technical, leading to six wake points combined. That helped push a close game to a sizable halftime hole.

The officiating really hurt the Hokies at the end of the half. At one point, wake had been called for seven fouls compared to just one on Tech. At the half, it was 11-10 (wake-VT). The officiating was very ticky-tack on Tech at the end of the half, with several offense fouls and reaches, whereas they let the action play on several times when wake seemed to foul Tech. If a team fouls a lot more than the other team, they should be called for more fouls! What a novel concept.

Jeff Allen was 2/2 shooting, but left with 9 minutes to go in the first half with 2 fouls. He touched the ball just four times on the offensive end and played just 7 minutes. Vassallo, who owns wake, led VT with nine at the half. He has averaged 22 per game in three previous meetings against wake. An amazing seven players had 3 or more for wake in the first half.

Notes

• A.D. shaved “PR” back in his head for Puerto Rico, something he has done in past seasons.
• Quote of the Game: Coach Greenberg, “My team is so young, we had our pre-game meal at Chuck E. Cheese.”
• Tech’s best efforts ever from the line were 13/13 against unc in ‘75, and 22/23 vs dayton in ‘76.
• Tech, who hit just one three in the first half, hit two in the first two minutes of the second half and three total in the second half.
• Flopper of the Game: Deron, of course, eight. But honorable mention to Malcolm Delaney who had four, including a flop that drew the fifth foul on wake’s best player, james johnson, with five minutes to go.
• Witcher and Diakite did not play the entire second half and Thorns played just four minutes after the initial four minutes of the game.

Next Up

VT returns to action next Friday as part of the four team Aeropostale Holiday Festival at hallowed MSG in NYC. VT will play hofstra in the first round and winner (yes, I’m guaranteeing a win) of st. john’s/marist in the finals on Saturday. VT has a legitimate shot at winning this tourney of crappy teams. Tech has not won a tournament of any kind since the 1995 NIT.