All 5 Hokie starters reach double digits as Tech holds the camels to exactly 60 points for the third straight year.  Hokies win 85-60 in the Cassell, and here are your highlights with commentary…

Highlights and Commentary | Boxscore

Thanks to a 15-0 run to open the 2nd half, the Hokies humped the camels 85-60 in the Cassell and move to 8-3. It was the 3rd year in a row campbell scored exactly 60 versus the Hokies, though the past 2 were much closer.

All 5 Tech starters reached double digits as the Hokies absolutely shredded the porous campbell defense in the final 20 minutes. VT started the second half 11/14 from the field. That helped a 3-point halftime margin become a 47-29 lead and later stretch into the 20s in margin. The Hokies outscored campbell 53-31 in the second half.

Tech shot an eye-popping 55% from the field for the game, including 73% (19/26) in the 2nd half thanks to all their easy buckets. The best sign for VT was their transition game, which had been awful until today. But the Hokies dominated the up-tempo camels 20-8 in fast break points, beating them at their own game which was great to see. How’d they do it? They actually passed the ball on the break! Imagine that.

The Hokies also got hot from deep after the break, hitting 4/5 3-pointers. They finished 5/12 from long range.

For those of you that have been calling for more from the seniors, you got your wish. Victor Davila and Dorenzo Hudson eached scored 15 to lead the Hokies. VD was 6/9 from the field and Zo was 5/11, with most of the damage for both coming in the second stanza. Erick Green, who had 10 at the half, scored just 2 in the second half to finish with 12. Jarell Eddie had 11, all in the 2nd half. Dorian Finney-Smith rounded out the double digit scorers with 10 (and he was much more aggressive on the offensive end, also a good sign).

The only negative for Tech is they got just 4 offensive rebounds for the game despite having a big size advantage on the camels.

VT led just 32-29 at the break as the Hokies looked rusty after 6 days off while finishing up exams. Tech shot under 40% from the field in the first half and were just 1/7 from behind the arc. They missed a lot of open looks. Luckily, the camels were off, too. They hit just 1/5 from deep, but did shoot close to 50% in the first half.

What did in the camels was turnovers. Despite shooting almost 45% for the game, they committed 15 turnovers. VT converted that into 23 points off turnovers while campbell got just 10.

campbell came into this game ranked in or near the top 10 in almost offensive stat. Tech held them 23 points below their average of 83 per game. Their leading scorer, Darrin White, came in averaging 21 ppg, 12th best in the land. He had 10 in the first 8 minutes of the game, but scored just 4 the rest of the way. Freeman had 16 for them and Griffin added 15 from their big 3, but no one else had more than 4 points.

The camels also shot 44% from deep coming in, also near the top in the country. But Tech held them to 1/12 (8%) from long range. VT’s opponents are shooting just barely over 20% on 3-pointers on the season.

And for those of you keeping track of my predictions, I did call for a laugher and did notice the trend of campbell always scoring 60 against VT.

The Hokies return to action on Monday night in the Cassell against north florida at 7 PM.

Some people were warning Tech to look out for the campbell camels.  They were 8-1 on the season… until Wednesday… when they lost… to houston baptist.  I know what you’re thinking, “What’s a houston baptist?”  As usual, your wish is my command:

• They are Division I
• They are in the Great West Conference (If you can name another team in the conference without looking then you have too much time on your hands… n.j.i.t. is in it (they are in New Jersey… in the Great ‘West’))
• Their nickname is the ‘huskies’… yeah, lots of huskies in Houston
• campbell, like norfolk state, has already played a team twice this year (houston baptist)… seriously, they played a home-and-home???  Is this some rivalry I don’t know about?  campbell won at home easily in their opener before losing at hbu.