Update on Delaney at 7:37pm: Coach Greenberg sent out a tweet an hour ago: “MD MRI negative! Bone bruise and ankle sprain. Not a high ankle! We will proceed with caution!”

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The Hokies finished their holiday feasting by gobbling up the lancers from longwood this afternoon 85-50. Unfortunately, it came at a price. The ACC’s leading scorer, Malcolm Delaney, sprained his ankle 90 seconds into the game and did not play the remainder of the contest. He was fouled while driving to the basket and fell hard to the court. Delaney was in serious pain and was not able to put weight on the injured leg. He had to be helped to the dressing room. Delaney later reappeared in the second half on crutches with his ankle in a boot. I can’t believe he will be playing on Saturday against the pirates. Coach Greenberg described it as a “severely bad sprain” in his post-game interview.

It was the Erick Green coming out party as he led all scorers with 15, shooting over 60% from the field. Jeff Allen came one rebound short of recording another double-double, but he finished with 13 points and 9 boards. The Hokies out-rebounded the lancers 48 to 37, although longwood did grab more offensive boards by a 14 to 8 margin.

The Hokies shot better from the floor than the line today. Not sure how you do that, but they did it. Tech was 30 of 51 from the field (58.8%) and 23 of 41 from the line (56.1%). I am sure Seth will have the team doing double time on the charity stripe before their flight south of the border. The Hokies also lost the turnover battle, which typically is not a good sign. Tech turned the ball over 18 times vs. 17 for the lancers.

First Half

The Hokies got out to a quick 7-0 start and led 43-21 at the half thanks to healthy contributions from Erick Green, Dorenzo Hudson, and Terrell Bell. Given that Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen only played a combined 5 minutes in the first half, it was great to see the team respond in this positive manner on the court. The threesome of Green, Hudson, and Bell scored a combined 27 points in the first half as freshman Erick Green led all scorers with 10 points. Green was 4 of 7 from the field, 1 of 1 from three point range. Dorenzo Hudson scored 9 in the first half with 5 rebounds. Hudson led all Hokies in rebounds after the first half. Bell had 8 at halftime on 2 of 2 shooting, 4 of 6 from the line.

The Hokies shot 51% in the first half compared to 18% for the lancers. From the line, the Hokies were 16 of 25 while the lancers were 8 of 11. Both teams were 1 of 3 from three point land.

longwood did something in the first half that I am not sure I have ever seen. Two players had four fouls at halftime. E.J. Dawson picked up his fourth foul with 1:02 left in the half and Antwan Carter picked up his fourth foul with 3:17 in the half.

Next up is the seton hall pirates in Cancun, Mexico on Saturday at 7:30pm. The game is televised on ESPN2. The pirates are coming off two very tough losses to wvu and syracuse, who are both in the Top 6 of the country.

NIEMO’S NOTES:

• Let us all hope for a speedy recovery for Malcolm. While the team played absolutely great in his absence today and got valuable experience without him, this team will only go as far as Delaney takes them.
• The following players had career highs today: Erick Green (15), Ben Boggs (10), Cadarian Raines (6), and the heart-and-soul of this team, Paul Debnam (6).
• The referees must have been getting paid by the foul – longwood was whistled for 15 fouls in BOTH halves! They had two players fouled out with 15 minutes still left in the game! VT shot a season high 41 free throws but made just 23 as Wick pointed out… that’s missing Delaney who always hits his. Boggs was 8 of 10 from the line.
• VT also had a season high 47 points off the bench, and it wasn’t just in garbage time (well, most of this game was garbage time actually). At the half Jeff Allen (2 early fouls) and Malcolm Delaney had 0 points, yet VT led 43-21. Allen did score 13 points in the second half and will need to become the central figure on offense for Tech while Delaney is down.
• What a balanced attack from the Hokies today – four guys reached double-digits (Green, Allen, Hudson, Boggs), two more guys had 8 (Bell and Thompson), and three more had 6 (Davila, Raines, Debnam). That is nine guys with 6 points or more.
• Tech had a whopping 8 blocks in the game against the smaller lancers.
• Dorenzo Hudson had another solid game with 11 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists.
• Tech attempted just 6 three-pointers and made 2, a season low in attempts. Again, that’s the impact of not having Delaney, VT’s best three-point shooter. This team needs to continue to do what they did today – go hard at the tin either in transition or the half court and pound the glass.
• The Hokies actually lost the turnover battle 18-17, but outscored longwood 23-9 in points off turnovers. Tech also lost the turnover battle against georgia and penn state.
• This is the first time VT has won back-to-back games by 30+ since 1987. The eight game winning streak is their longest since 1995-96 when VT started 12-1 and won nine in a row.
• Tech led by as many as 39 in this game! Ouch. longwood was rather limp today.

Malcolm Delaney suffered an ankle injury just a little over a minute into the game against longwood.  The ACC’s leading scorer was fouled while driving to the basket and fell hard to the court.  He was in serious pain and was not able to put weight on the injured leg.  He had to be helped to the dressing room.  It was diagnosed as a sprained left ankle and he went for x-rays.

Update: Malcolm returned to the court on crutches with his ankle in a boot.  X-rays were negative (no break).  He obviously did not return to play in the game and there is no timetable yet on when he might be able to play again.  They are waiting to hear back about his MRI.

This is obviously extremely sad news for Tech and Malcolm.  The team is really playing great right now and with VT about to play a very good seton hall team on Saturday and kickoff the ACC schedule the following weekend, this could really be a huge blow to the Hokies and their season if he is out for any significant amount of time.  The only silver lining, and it is a very small one, is that Tech had to play the final 38:30 of the game without Malcolm and got some experience not having him, especially for Erick Green who had a career high in points.