In a game where the Hokies had every right to believe they had been beaten, they simply didn’t quit Thursday night, and they were rewarded with an Atlantic Coast Conference road win over in-state rival Virginia, 76-71.
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“That was just a really good basketball game,” head coach Seth Greenberg said. “Both teams competed at a high level. I was really proud of our resiliency.”
Down 10 points with slightly less than three minutes to go, the Cavaliers (12-6, 3-2 ACC) appeared to have the game in hand, but the Virginia Tech (16-3, 3-2 ACC) trio of juniors in Malcolm Delaney, Dorenzo Hudson and J.T. Thompson dug down deep and kept fighting.
The Hokies then hustled like never before and rattled off 13 straight points in a hurry to reclaim a 65-62 lead over a stunned UVa team
and crowd with 10 seconds remaining.
Shocked but not defeated, the Cavaliers put the ball in the hands of star sophomore Sylven Landesberg to take the last shot, but the Hokies defended the play and forced a pass to fellow sophomore Sammy Zeglinski with one second on the clock.
With a well guarded, desperation three, Zeglinski drained a prayer and knotted the game at 65-65 to force the game into overtime.
Still riding high from simply getting back into the game, Tech charged into the overtime period and took over against the deflated Wahoos. Led by the hustle of Thompson, Tech jumped out to a 70-65 lead with 2:49 left in the period.
Again, Zeglinski nailed another deep three-pointer to pull the score close at 70-68, but Thompson simply would not let the Hokies lose.
“We had so many guys step up,” Greenberg said. “J.T. Thompson was so tough and determined. It was good to see him play that way. That was a piece that had been missing.”
Thompson fought hard down low on the offensive end for another quick two points to push the lead to four, and then he sealed the game by poking the ball away from behind Zeglinski on UVa’s subsequent possession with 40 seconds left.
Hudson recovered the ball and passed back to Thompson, who was then fouled before he could get a quick score. Still calm, he drained two free throws to make the score 73-68 with 37 seconds remaining, sending Hoo fans flooding to the exits to the chants of “let’s go Hokies.”
“(Thompson) was a big time player for us,” Hudson said. “Jeff (Allen) went down late, and J.T. played big for us, got some big rebounds, allowed us to feed the ball and played tough. He made the right plays, dove on the floors for balls.”
Thompson ended the game with 17 points, 15 of which came in the second half and overtime after being forced into action because Allen was ejected for a flagrant foul with 13:41 left in the second half.
“I didn’t see the play,” Greenberg said. “I spoke to Jeff and he said he secured the ball, he chinned the ball, and he turned and didn’t see Jeff Jones who was a teammate of his in AAU. That’s all I know.”
Still, despite Thompson’s heroics in the second half of the game, not enough can be said about the performance of Delaney and Hudson, who played 42 and 43 minutes respectively and scored a combined 45 points. After the game, Delaney, who scored 27 points alone, exited the floor of the John Paul Jones arena with a limp, an IV and a W.
“It’s tough to get a win like that on the road, especially going into the Miami game,” Delaney said.