The Hokies used a strong second half and a 45-28 edge in rebounding to hold off a gritty Navy squad, 79-70, in the BB&T Classic. Malcolm Delaney led all scorers with 21 points – he also had six rebounds, five assists, two blocks and a steal. Niemo texted me immediately following the game; “Delaney player of the game.” Jeff Allen and A.D. Vassallo both had 17 points and Hank Thorns gave Tech 10 points off the bench.
Tech started off sluggishly and their first half shooting was abysmal. They were 0-8 from behind the arc in the first half and finished 2/13 for the game. Vassallo couldn’t find his rhythm until the second half. Even with an improved shooting effort in the final 20 minutes, he finished 0-5 on threes.
The Hokies built up a 20-10 lead in the first half with the help of an 11-0 run. But, the Midshipmen used a a gnat-like defense to force Tech into some costly turnovers and closed the half with a 24-8 run putting Navy up 34-28 at the half.
The second half was a completely different story. Tech finally found its stroke and ripped off an 18-2 run to start the half and didn’t commit a turnover until six minutes into the half. Though Navy would use some stellar three-point shooting to keep the game respectable, the Hokies dominated the boards and shot 85 percent from the charity stripe (29/34) to put the game away.
The Big Three (Vassallo, Delaney and Allen) scored 55 of the team’s 79 points. Seth Greenberg did get 20 points from his bench tonight. True freshman Victor Davila had a quiet game with just 4 points in 14 minutes. When he was in the game, Navy double and tripled teamed him down low as part of their very physical style of play.
The win at the Verizon Center snaps the Hokies two-game losing streak in the “phone booth” as well as Navy’s seven-game winning streak. Next up for Tech, a road game against lowercase georgia, 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
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