One would think that Virginia Tech had tallied up its quota of close losses.
This season's kings of cardiac contests had yet another confrontation of the same sort with ACC power Duke inside Cassell Coliseum on Saturday.
When Greg Paulus was left all alone for an uncontested layup with 33 seconds left to put the Blue Devils up 68-63, the Hokies and their fans had fallen into that agonizing and all-too-familiar feeling of "close but no cigar."
Not to blow smoke, but Tech's NCAA Tournament chances are still much better than they were a week ago.
Prior to their encounter with Clemson at Littlejohn Coliseum, the Hokies' Big Dance hopes were waning. But A.D. Vassallo and Malcolm Delaney revived them with an 80-77 victory.
Staring them in the face next was a pair of formidable Tobacco Road foes. Their game against the No. 7 Blue Devils was opportunity No. 1 to state their case for inclusion in the field of 65.
"We had it," said senior Vassallo, who finished with a game-high 26 points. "We did what we had to do; we just couldn't finish."
Tech didn't degrade its chances, but, boy, could it have helped them with a victory on Saturday afternoon.
The easy scapegoats can be the referees for a couple of questionable calls. Both took place in the late going.
Official Gary Maxwell whistled Delaney for a moving screen with 1:50 to go. Then, in the final minute, they missed an apparent travel by Jon Scheyer, who looked as if he was performing a bad rendition of the watusi.
Nevertheless, the simple fact of the matter is that this game was lost in the first half of play. More specifically, it was lost in the first 10 minutes of play.
Duke jumped out to a 20-5 lead. It held its largest advantage -- a 16-point spread -- with just under six minutes to go in the opening half. In addition, Tech had more turnovers (12) than field goals (nine) by the time the teams headed to the locker room.
Poor defense and a poor shooting effort left the Hokies playing catch up, and their ability to limit Gerald Henderson along with Vassallo's shooting efforts helped Tech reel in the Blue Devils at the 5:50 mark in the second half.
Henderson finished with 21 points, but Tech limited him to 0-for-7 shooting and two points following intermission.
Meanwhile, down 54-43, the Hokies went on a 15-4 run to tie the score at 58 apiece. Vassallo, in that spurt, was blazing. If this were the NBA Jam video game, the ball would have been on fire when it was in his hands. He accounted for all of the points in that run, including three trifectas.
But then, Tech was held scoreless for six successive empty possessions and the next 4:47. When it was over, with over a minute to go in regulation, the Blue Devils were up by six.
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on a devil of a chance?
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