Virginia Tech trailed by three points at halftime, but they outplayed the Maryland Terrapins down the stretch and walked out of Cassell Coliseum with a 91-83 win. The Hokies improved to 17-7 overall and 7-4 in conference play with the victory. Maryland dropped to 16-10 overall and 5-6 in ACC games, and severely damaged their hopes of an NCAA Tournament berth.
After scoring a career-high 24 points in the first meeting with Maryland, Erick Green had another strong performance against the Terps on Tuesday night. Green scored 20 points and had five assists, and his two big three-pointers in the second half played a key role in Tech’s victory.
Malcolm Delaney paced Tech with 22 points, and he also had five assists, three steals and no turnovers while playing all 40 minutes. Jeff Allen continued his recent streak of good play, finishing with 16 points and 11 rebounds. It was his sixth consecutive double-double, and he’s averaged 19.5 points and 12.3 rebounds per game during that span.
Terrell Bell and Victor Davila also played key roles. Bell scored 16 points, and he was a perfect 5-of-5 from three-point range. Davila had 13 points and four rebounds, and went 7-of-9 from the field. For the second consecutive game, the Hokies had all five starters in double figures.
Tech out-rebounded Maryland 35-33, and had a 19-9 assist-to-turnover ratio. Maryland turned the ball over 15 times, and the Hokies outscored the Terps 17-2 off turnovers. It was a hard fought game between two teams desperate to get a win, but the Hokies had enough at home to pull the season sweep of Maryland.
The game started out well for Tech, and they went on a 7-0 run capped by a Victor Davila dunk to make the score 20-10 with 13:44 remaining in the first half. The Terps couldn’t seem to do much offensively, and Maryland’s 3-2 zone wasn’t putting up much resistance against the Tech offense.
However, the Terps are a well-coached team under Gary Williams, and they were able to steadily chip away at the lead for the remainder of the first half. Maryland scored the final four points of the half and took a 44-41 lead into halftime. The Hokies were getting beat in transition, and they had to play better in the second half.
That’s exactly what they were able to do. Maryland’s Jordan Williams scored on a layup with 5:22 left in the game to make the score 76-75, but that was the last time the Terps led. Malcolm Delaney answered with two free throws and a jump shot, and then a big three-pointer from Erick Green with 3:24 remaining put the Hokies up 82-76.
Tech led by as many as eight points down the stretch, and though Maryland was able to cut the lead to 87-83 with 33 seconds remaining, Delaney closed the game with four free throws to give the Hokies a comfortable margin of victory.
Virginia Tech returns to action on Saturday when they travel to Charlottesville to take on in-state rival UVA. Tip-off is scheduled for 1pm, and the game will be televised by the ACC Network.
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