2nd Half:

VICTORY! VT 73, gt 65 FINAL
Game recap coming up in a few…

2:18 – VT 62, gt 55
What a take and FLUSH by Gordon! We needed that. We look stagnant on O. Let’s hope we can hit our FT’s down the stretch. No more timeouts left for the jackets so we should roll through the end. It looked today like gt had a power play when Munson was on the court. Tough day for him.

4:13 – VT 60, gt 51
5 slamma jammas for Coleman! Great job driving and dishing by Gordon and Z. But I’m nervous because we are already in our 4 corners offense. At least today we are finishing at the end, unlike vs md.

7:09 – VT 56, gt 47
Dagger! A.D. for 3! 17 for Vassallo and Dowdell. Crittenton and Young, who avg 28.5 PPG combined, are 3 for 20 from the field and have just 9 points. Great job by Gordon and Dowdell on them. That’s experience over (perceived) talent (Young and Crittenton were 5 star recruits).

11:41 – VT 47, gt 43
Both teams are playing sloppy. gt finally missing on their 3′s after starting out 3 for 5 this half. We are still getting killed on the boards. Gordon finally on the board. He really is not scoring much of late. He’s not being aggressive at going to the hole like Z and he has been in foul trouble a couple of games (he has 3 fouls right now).

15:43 – VT 42, gt 38
The 3 can sure get you back close in a hurry. Two 3′s for Morrow and it is a 4 point game and now the jackets and their crowd have some life. We can’t hit wide open 3′s, which is not a good sign. Gotta drive and dish or get to the line until we can hit from outside.

17:42 – VT 42, gt 32
Collins with the FLUSH! Gordon rejecting a guy 6 inches taller! Good energy to start the 2nd half, though I don’t like our movement on O for the most part. Looks like we are about to go into our 4 corners O again.

Halftime – VT 38, gt 30
8-1 run to close the half and we played hard. How’d we have that run? We rebounded! And we got back to taking the ball to the hole. Moving without the ball got lazy in the middle of the half. We held their two leading scorers (Young and Crittenton) to just 6 combined points (they average 28.5 PPG combined).

Leading Scorers:
VT – Dowdell (11), Vassallo (10), Washington (7), Witcher and Collins (5)
gt – Faye (13), Morrow and Crittenton (5)

FG %: VT – 61!!!, gt 31%
3′s: VT 3/8, gt 3/10
FTs: VT – 7/10, gt 5/10
Of Note: Collins has 6 boards, but gt has ELEVEN offensive rebounds! BOX OUT!
No one has more than 2 fouls for either team, and Gordon is the only player with 2 for VT.

1st Half:

Let’s see… bloods pumping, heart rate up, breath deepening… must be time for Hokie basketball! It’s 3:30 and time to strap it on as our beloved Hokies take on the nerds of georgia tech in the ATL.

My mind says we are going to lose this, as does Vegas (we are 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 point dogs). But let’s hope we prove me wrong. So let’s Go Hokies!

I’ll be giving you my thoughts at every TV timeout throughout the game.

Ouch. Deron has been benched for missing a class. We’ll see how long he sits for.

15:07 – VT 15, gt 7
What a start! We have recorded an assist on all six made FG’s, which is amazing. Our passing looks outstanding. But we are getting abused inside. Need to bring in Diakite to throw some muscle around. Look for Coleman to have a big game since he likely has a lot of family and friends there (he’s from nearby Stone Mtn, GA).

11:53 – VT 19, gt 14
Sloppy period for us there, but we still are doing a great job of moving without the ball and making great passes. Our offense is so much better than a month ago. Munson is a defensive liability. He looks like a matador out there. Give him a cape! Deron checked in, so I guess he was 5 minutes late for his class?

7:56 – VT 23, gt 20
We are getting killed on the boards. We might have to put Witcher, Collins, and Diakite in at the same time to match their size, but that might wear our guys out.
Faye, who averages 5 PPG, already has 10 because we are not blocking him out. I think Crittenton got racked for gt. Can’t enjoy that. And he’s 0 for 6.

3:42 – VT 30, gt 29
Even gt’s PG is getting offensive rebounds. BOX OUT! Yeesh! Crittenton has hit 2 shots in a row after starting 0 for 7. Young, their leading scorer, has zippee. So we’ve done a good job on their stars. If we could rebound and Collins would stop turning it over, we’d be up by 10 or more. Vassallo has 10 to lead us and we have 4 guys with 5+ points.