Final:

After coming out like gangbusters in the first half with an explosive, up-tempo, three-point chucking offense and a 14-point halftime lead, the Hokies limped through the second half and barely held on to win 65-62. gardner-webb, who never led in the game, went on a 9-0 run late in the second half to close the VT lead to 63-62.

The Hokies went over 5 minutes without scoring late in the second half before Malcolm Delaney finally broke the ice with 2 free throws with 23 seconds left. After a gwu timeout, the runnin’ bulldogs best player, Grayson Flittner, missed a three to tie the game. gwu grabbed the rebound (their third offensive rebound in the final 90 seconds) and fired to Flittner for another three that was blocked by Terrell Bell with 5 seconds left. Malcolm Delaney, Tech’s best free throw shooter, promptly missed the front end of a one-and-one but Aaron Linn missed a desperation three at the buzzer.

Jeff Allen and A.D. Vassallo led the way for the Hokies with 19 points each, but Allen had just 2 points in the second half and only attempted one field goal. As a team, Tech scored just 25 second-half points after gunning for 40 in the first half. The Hokies finished the game shooting just 39% after hitting 47% from the field in the first half.

Tech’s bench (Bell, Thorns, and Witcher) was only 3/12 from the floor. They must be able to provide more offense in J.T. Thompson’s absence, although Bell did have the key block at the end.

The Hokies must improve if they hope to do well in the Puerto Rico Shootout next weekend, and against wisconsin in 2 weeks. VT returns to action Monday in a game that will be televised on Comcast SportsNet against mount st. mary’s.

First Half Recap: (only includes details from the 1st Half)

The Hokies went into halftime with a comfortable 40-26 lead and never trailed. The game was only tied once, at 2-2.

Expect to hear this a lot this season: Welcome to the Jeff Allen show! He had ACC Player of the Week like stats… in the first half! Allen had 7 points, 2 rebounds, and a steal — in the first 3 minutes. He finished the first half with 17 points on 7/8 shooting, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals.

A.D. Vassallo showed no ill effects from his foot injury as he also hit double digits in the first stanza. The Puerto Rican Assassin recorded 13 points on 5/10 shooting, 3 assists (Vassallo passes???), and 2 rebounds.

In case you have been ignoring me and thought you were in store for another season of offensive struggles like we’ve seen on the gridiron from the Hokies, you can forget it! The Hokies pushed the ball a good bit, and figure to feature a more up-tempo, ACC style of play this season.

The most stunning thing was the frequency of three-point attempts. Tech was 11th in the ACC in three-point percentage last season, and 8th in threes made with an average of 5.7 threes made on 16.3 attempts. In the first half, the Hokies chucked 14 threes and hit 5. In fact, 10 of the Hokies’ first 19 shots were threes. Last year only 29% of the Hokies’ shots from the field were three pointers. A.D. was 3/7 while Malcolm Delaney was 1/4. Allen hit his only attempt (yes, he really is doing it all!).

Malcolm played some at shooting guard while Hank Thorns took over the point. Victor Davila made his VT debut but played just 2 minutes. Terrell Bell, who has to really make a statement while J.T. Thompson is out with an injury, only saw 6 minutes of action. Lewis Witcher played 8 minutes, the same as starter Cheick Diakite. I expect that both will see similar minutes all season regardless of who starts.

The only negative was Tech’s inability to guard gardner-webb’s best player, Grayson Flittner. He hit 5/9 threes and hit for 17 points in just the first half. He has no game inside the three point line, but for some reason he kept getting good looks and was the only reason gwu was even within 14 points at the half. No one else had more than 4 points for the runnin’ bulldogs.

Halftime Stats: The Hokies shot 46% from the floor, 36% on threes, and were a perfect 3/3 from the line (Allen was 2/2).

Starters for the Hokies:

• PG - Malcolm Delaney
• SG - Dorenzo Hudson
• SF - A.D. Vassallo
• PF - Jeff Allen
• C - Cheick Diakite