Collegiate Times

Wake Forest guard C.J. Harris drives past Tech forward Terrell Bell.

In a game featuring high-flying offenses and a lot of whistles, the Hokies outlasted the Wake Forest Demon Deacons Tuesday night in Cassell Coliseum, 87-83.

Tech weathered an early Demon Deacons (18-6, 8-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) storm when starting forwards Victor Davila and Jeff Allen were both forced to sit on the bench with two fouls and 11:48 left in the first half.

With two of the Hokies’ key big men sitting out, the Deacons took control of the game and ran up an eight point halftime lead behind 21 first-half points from sophomore forward Al-Farouq Aminu. Junior guard Malcolm Delaney single-handedly kept Tech in the game with 15 points of his own in the first half and finished the game with 31 total.

Despite the troubles in the first half, Delaney always felt the game was within reach.

“Not once in that game did I feel like we was out of the game,” Delaney said. “You listen to every huddle, we was always positive, saying we was gonna get a run, we was gonna get some shots, and we never feel like we’re gonna lose games, and that’s why we always come back.

We got confidence, and that’s a big part of this team. I always say this, but last year we would have lost that game down 11 to Wake Forest. We wouldn’t have won that game last year, and we’ve just got a different mentality
this year.”

The second half appeared to be going poorly from the start for the Hokies (21-4, 8-3 ACC) when Allen picked up another two fouls early in the half and was relegated to the bench with 16:19 left in the contest.

Now, seemingly on the ropes and in foul trouble, Tech juniors JT Thompson, Dorenzo Hudson and Terrell Bell picked up their game as they have all season to carry the Hokies back into contention. Thompson and Hudson scored 14 and 15 points respectively in the second half, and

Bell contributed 14 rebounds to lead the team.

“It feels great that we’re supporting our leaders, so we’re going to keep doing that throughout the season,” Bell said. “We know our roles and we know what we do best, and everybody embraced their roles. We got a junior class and we’ve been playing together for a long time, so we’ve got a great chemistry out there.”

“We won that game with just determination and resiliency and a lot of different guys contributing, and even Jeff with foul trouble and everything,” head coach Seth Greenberg said.

Behind the explosion of points from Hudson and Thompson, Tech regained the lead with 6:44 left in the second half off a Delaney three.

The Hokies and Deacons traded points until the 3:41 mark when Tech took the lead for good off a Delaney layup.

Senior Wake guard Ishmael Smith did his best to keep the Deacons in the game late with seven points in the final 44 seconds, but Tech remained strong at the free throw line to hold the Deacons’ late surge.

Tech finally sealed the victory when senior Deacons guard L.D. Williams traveled with 5.8 seconds left while attempting to shoot a three down by four points.

“That was just a good hard fought basketball game against two teams that are extremely competitive, prideful, and I’m just really proud of our guys,” Greenberg said. “We were determined, resilient, we stayed together. The second half — that was probably the best we’ve executed all season.”

With the win, Tech seized sole possession of second place in the ACC.

The Hokies travel to Durham this weekend to face the Duke Blue Devils on Sunday at 7:45 p.m. on FSN. If Tech wins, the Hokies will take over first place in the ACC standings.

“That’s what we’re going for,” Hudson said. “We’re trying to go for No. 1 next game. We’re gonna get some hard work in practice and try to go get that win.”

A version of this article appeared in the Feb 17 issue of the Collegiate Times.