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The Virginia Tech men’s basketball team won a 67-64 overtime-thriller against the Maryland Terrapins Sunday evening in Blacksburg.
"This game was not about being aesthetically pleasing," said Tech Head Coach Seth Greenberg. " This game was about guts, and grit, and toughness and stick-to-it-ivness. And these kinds of games were the ones we were unable to win a year ago."
The game was also characterized by an unusually large contingent of Tech students, after a mass e-mail was sent inviting all students to the game.
"I think the impetus for the whole thing was that the weather was so bad," said Associate Athletics Director for Internal Affairs, Tom Gabbard. "There was no way we were going to get a really good crowd here, and we need to support our team."
"Seth called me this morning, we talked a little while. I called the (athletic director), we had kind of a conversation — can we do it, how can we do it, any logistical problems with it? We said, ‘No, I think we can work it out, ‘cause I don’t think we’re going to have a lot of people,’" Gabbard said.
The beefed up student section that circled the court at Cassell Coliseum was vocal early and often, with good reason. The two teams traded a few baskets early on in what Greenberg described as an offensive struggle.
Then the Hokies went on a bit of a run, outscoring the visiting Terps 13-3 over a period of 4:30 during the middle of the first half.
Contributing to Tech’s offensive success was sophomore forward Cheick Diakite. The Bamako, Mali native hit two baseline jumpers in the first half while swatting two Terrapin shots in the period.
Diakite finished the game with nine points on 4-5 shooting and four blocks while only playing 21 minutes. His play was good enough to earn the praise of Greenberg during the post-game press conference.
However, the added spark of Diakite coming off the Hokie bench didn’t carry the team into the half. The visitors from College Park went on an 8-0 run as the end of the first half approached.
Nonetheless, it was the Hokies who took the lead into the intermission, only by a slim 34-33 margin.
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