Malcolm Delaney takes his shot over the fallen Dwanye Collins. Delaney would finish the game with 17 points, 5 assists, and a steal. Related gallery
A runner from senior A.D. Vassallo and a two by Allen helped Tech emerge from the stalemate that dominated the middle portions of the second half. This expanded Tech's lead to 22-8 as the clock sunk under seven minutes in the first half.
Miami chipped the lead down to 22-13 in the moments following before Allen baby-hooked a shot in from close range.
Once Tech started rebounding well, fouls and turnovers began plaguing them on offense while its perimeter defense deteriorated.
Allen made layup in transition to push it to 28-15, before Adrian Thomas and McClinton combined on three from beyond the arc to surge back as halftime approached. The teams went into the locker room with Tech holding a narrow 28-24 advantage.
After the Hokies shelled out their worst shooting performance of the season on Sunday with a 30.8 percent mark, they recovered drastically versus Miami, hitting over 47 percent in the first half and 50 percent for the game.
Allen led the Hokies in the first session with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting.
"I think we moved the ball pretty good," Vassallo said. "We got guys shooting the ball well ... We were kind of struggling the last couple of games trying to get shots closer to the rim, and today we finished and we had some good looks."
Allen hurried off to the locker room with a trainer early in the second half due to the blooding falling from his lip to his uniform. He returned minutes later as an unnamed No. 13.
The Hokies escaped this Allen-less period with a 40-32 lead thanks to good free throw shooting. They would eventually hit seven straight from the line and stretch the lead to 43-32 with the clock approaching 12 minutes in the second half.
Vassallo's dish inside to Thompson for an emphatic dunk pushed the margin up to 20 points -- 57-37 -- which ended the competitive phase of the contest with over seven minutes left.
Thompson finished with 12 points off the bench to go along with nine rebounds. Delaney led all scorers with 17, while Vassallo had 14 and eight rebounds.
The Hokies now must defeat the No. 1 team in the nation, North Carolina, for a certain bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Tar Heels and Hokies will tangle in the second round of the ACC tournament at noon on Friday.
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