Collegiate Times

Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney (#23) puts pressure on a Miami player as he prepares to inbound the ball.

The Virginia Tech men's basketball team disappointed yet again in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament, falling 65-70 to the No. 12-seed Miami Hurricanes in the quarterfinals.

With the win, Miami moves on to play the No. 1 seed, Duke, in the semifinals.

"Obviously, it was a heck of a basketball game," head Miami coach Frank Haith said. "I thought our guys just came out, just showed a lot of poise, a lot of toughness, and our defense was really, really good ― particularly down the stretch."

Tech got out to a 22-12 lead with 12:26 remaining in the first half behind an 11-point scoring barrage from junior guard Dorenzo Hudson, but the Hurricanes' DeQuan Jones responded with eight of his own points to help cut the Hokies' halftime lead to 37-35. Hudson finished the half with 15 and Jones with 11.

In the second half, Hudson didn't make a field goal and only managed one point at the free-throw line, and junior point guard Malcolm Delaney struggled as well, contributing only two points in the second period to finish the game with seven total ― nearly 14 points off his season average.

"I think (Delaney) was the main focus," Haith said. "There's no question ― he's one of the best guards in our conference, if not one of the better guards in the country. I thought we did a great job of knowing where he was at in the zone, locating him and making sure we had good close outs on him."

"Every shot he missed today, (Delaney) made against Georgia Tech," Tech head coach Seth Greenberg said. "He just picked a bad day to not make shots. His feet were bothering him a little bit this week. ... He had good looks and didn't make them, but I'll take those shots any day."

Despite the shooting troubles from Delaney and Hudson in the second half, the Hokies stayed in the game thanks to the play of juniors Jeff Allen and Terrell Bell.

Allen battled with Miami's bigger post players during the second half and kept the Hokies in the game with 12 second half points, and Bell connected on three 3-pointers to keep Tech alive all the way to the end.

Tech maintained its lead until the 5:54 mark when Miami freshman guard Durand Scott converted on a layup to go ahead 59-57.

At that point, Scott took over the game, scoring 10 of the last 11 points for the Canes by attacking the rim and getting layups or making free throws.

"The coaches put the ball in my hands, and I just wanted to go out there and make the best play possible," Scott said. "I know I am a good driver, I know what I am best at, so my main focus was to do what the coaches wanted me to do, and it came down my way."

During the post-game press conference, Greenberg questioned his own decision making in regards to containing Scott late in the game.

"We didn't guard the ball at the end of the game," Greenberg said. "Let's face it, (Scott) attacked us, and if we were a zone team, we could have maybe zoned it up and at least forced them to kick it out. They had (Malcolm) Grant and (Adrian) Thomas in the game on the offensive side. I didn't really feel like I wanted to give up an uncontested three, but as I look back on it, I'm a lot smarter. I say, 'Well, maybe if we went zone we could have contained the ball a little bit better and forced them to kick it out.' ... That's something I'll probably second guess myself a little bit."

With 1:10 left in the game and down two points, Allen hauled in a rebound off a missed shot by Grant. The Hokies then went down the floor and called timeout with 46.7 seconds remaining and 12 seconds on the shot clock.

Out of the timeout, Delaney missed a difficult, forced jump shot, and the ball was recovered by Miami redshirt freshman Reggie Johnson.

"It's a stack play," Greenberg said. "We wanted to get Malcolm coming off a ball screen. You run a play, but you've got to make a play out of a play. It's not like it's finite. You run a play, you try to get the ball in a player's hands, and then he's got to make a decision."

Delaney stripped the ball from Johnson and attempted two more layups but could not get one to fall.

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