I love it when a plan comes together. Friday night, conventional wisdom
dictated that Virginia Tech should try to run Wake Forest ragged, make the Deacs
move up and down the court just 21 hours after their historic double overtime
win over Georgia Tech. The Hokies didn’t back down from the challenge, and as a
result, Tech knocked a big monkey off their backs and got their first-ever ACC
tournament win.

From the get-go, the Hokies showed their strategy, pushing the ball up the
floor, even after made shots. When Deron Washington took a seat on the bench
with his second foul three minutes into the game, and Coleman Collins followed
one minute later, the Hokies didn’t flinch. They kept pushing it and built a
16-6 lead just six minutes in.

For the rest of the half, with reserves like Markus Sailes and Robert
Krabbendam logging major minutes, the Hokies’ offense bogged down, and Wake
closed the gap. Behind strong offensive rebounding and Kyle Visser, Wake cut the
lead to three points, then two, and when the teams went into half time, VT had a
slim 36-34 lead.

That was the bad news. The good news was that VT played most of the half
without Washington and Collins, yet still the Hokies were in it, thanks to A.D.
Vassallo, who showed up ready to play and bombed in 11 first half points.
(Vassallo matched that in the second half and finished with a game-high 22.)

...