Collegiate Times

The Virginia Tech Hokies (16-10, 6-6 ACC) further harmed their NCAA Tournament hopes on Saturday night by falling to the Florida State Seminoles (21-6, 8-4 ACC) in the final seconds at Cassell Coliseum.

In what was seemingly their last realistic chance of convincing the tournament Committee to send them to the big dance next month, Tech was unable to stop Florida State's Derwin Kitchen and Toney Douglas down the stretch.

"They're not a very good shooting team really," said Tech head coach Seth Greenberg.  "But they made shots and we need to have some accountability."

In his best efforts, Malcolm Delaney tried to rally his team, but Tech was unable to stop Douglas, who made a floater in the lane with just six seconds remaining.

"He's a very good player," Greenberg said.  "We knew what he was going to do but he made a good move and he made a good play."

The 'Noles came out strong early, going up by as much as 14 points in the first half, causing the Hokies to quickly switch their defense from a zone to a man-to-man.

"The zone was not exactly the smartest thing to do," Greenberg said.  "We went man, we went a little smaller, put better pressure on the ball and we started guarding the ball screens.  I thought we had pretty good execution and for at least the last 24 minutes we defended like we need to defend."

Despite a plethora of offensive rebounds and second-chance points for Florida State in the first half of play, it looked as though the Hokies could pull out a win in the end.

Tech's leader on the floor, Delaney made five three pointers and ended the game with 25 points.  The Hokies went on a 12-1 run coming out of halftime to cut FSU's lead to one.

After his subpar performance against Virginia, the sophomore guard bounced back with a game-high scoring effort.

"He's not tired, he just puts a lot of pressure on himself," said Greenberg of Delaney.  "I want him to attack quicker; he's playing a little too slow.  I brought him in yesterday and really talked to him about pacing his game and being more aggressive coming off the ball screens, being more ready to make those plays and not to be afraid of missing those shots."

Vassallo was soon after fouled on a three-pointer and by making all three free throws, put his team up 57-54.

"Me and Malcolm, we played hard," said A.D. Vassallo, who contributed 15 points on the night.  "As a team, we need to play better defense throughout the whole game like we played the second half tonight."

Douglas was quick to answer however, with a three on their ensuing possession, followed by two made free throws on their next one.

After Douglas hit the eventual game-winner, Tech tried to respond with a three from Vassallo.  However, his try was too strong.

In what is starting to sound like a broken record for the Hokies, Tech has found some good things from Saturday's loss - especially defensively.

"Games like this, you really have to put behind you," Allen said.  "We just need to go out and play the rest of our games, defensively, like we played the last 25 minutes of this game.  I think that if we play defense like that, we are good enough to compete with anybody."

Delaney remains optimistic on the season, and about Tech's next game.

"It's real tough, it just brings back some memories from the beginning of the season," he said.  "But I think that even with the loss we have some momentum going into Clemson from this game.  I think we're starting to see how good we are when we start playing defense.  There were a lot of negatives in this game but I think we came up with a lot of positives going forward too."

The Hokies will now face Clemson on the road this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.  The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.