Tech beats UNC Greensboro, boosts mark to 2-0
BLACKSBURG - The college basketball season, unforgiving grind that it is, essentially splits neatly into halves.
First come nonconference games before the new year, a mix of quality opponents that could polish an NCAA tournament résumé and overmatched squads that visit your home court, take their beating, collect a paycheck and hop on the bus.
Then January brings the conference games that determine who is happiest come March - a furious stretch of winter that leaves coaches asking for raises or handing out résumés.
Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg wanted to find out now, in Part 1, how his team might handle Part 2. That's why he scheduled last night's home game against North Carolina Greensboro, which the Hokies won 59-46, two days after they won their season opener against Brown. He wanted to see how they dealt with a short turnaround - a routine part of their ACC schedule.
"I knew this wouldn't be easy," he said.
Greensboro's 1-1-3 zone defense, which Tech rarely faces, made it tougher. Greenberg relied on a simple approach: get the ball into the paint. The shots didn't fall early for the Hokies, who missed 34 of their first 50 attempts and finished 1 of 13 on 3-pointers. After taking their 50th shot, they made eight of their next 11.
But they can credit most of the win to stingy defense, which Greenberg believes is the basis of their identity. The game was tied at 26 at halftime, but the Hokies distanced themselves in the second half, as the Spartans shot 29.2 percent and Tech outscored them 11-0 from the 10:48 mark to 5:12, turning a 38-all game into a routine-looking November win.
Hokies junior guard Dorenzo Hudson shut down Greensboro's best scorer, senior guard Mikko Koivisto, who scored 10 points in the first 11:50 and didn't take a shot for the rest of the game. "That was the guy we wanted to take out," Greenberg said.
As Greenberg paced the sideline, he admired Hudson's defensive stance: hands high, back side low, staying in front of the opponent - exactly what the Hokies practiced five days a week during the preseason.
"Even if we're not scoring, if we're getting stops, then we don't have to worry about losing games," said junior point guard Malcolm Delaney, who led the Hokies with 17 points and weathered a first half in which he shot 3 of 10 and landed awkwardly on his left ankle. "Probably just a bad sprain," he said.
Greenberg classified his team's defense as "good, not great," given the competition. "Would it have been great if we were playing Maryland today?" he said. "I don't know."
More than anything, he wanted the past two days to simulate the short layoffs for teams like Maryland. Twice during the ACC schedule, the Hokies have one day off between games. Seven times they have two days off. Though they didn't finish this quick turnaround by blowing out the Spartans, Greenberg got much of what he hoped for.
"This time of year, you're going to see scores like this," he said. "I'm not embarrassed by this. If we were where we needed to be today, then we obviously wouldn't have anything to look forward to."
UNC GREENSBORO (0-2)
| M | FG | FT | R | PF | A | Pt | |
| Sellers------------------------- | 6 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
| Stywall------------------------- | 33 | 3-9 | 0-0 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Brown------------------------- | 29 | 0-5 | 3-4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Koivisto------------------------- | 35 | 4-6 | 0-0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| Randall------------------------- | 32 | 5-11 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 |
| Van Dussen---------------- | 14 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Toney------------------------- | 15 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Evans------------------------- | 21 | 2-8 | 3-5 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
| Cole------------------------- | 10 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 |
| Jackson------------------------- | 5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | 11 | ||||||
| Totals ------------------------- | 18-51 | 7-11 | 38 | 20 | 7 | 46 |
| VIRGINIA TECH (2-0) | M | FG | FT | R | PF | A | Pt |
| Allen------------------------- | 37 | 7-13 | 0-0 | 10 | 3 | 1 | 14 |
| Bell------------------------- | 29 | 2-8 | 2-3 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 6 |
| Davila------------------------- | 24 | 4-7 | 0-1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 8 |
| Hudson------------------------- | 36 | 3-7 | 0-4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Delaney------------------------- | 36 | 6-16 | 4-4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 17 |
| Green------------------------- | 6 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Witcher------------------------- | 7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Boggs------------------------- | 9 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Atkins------------------------- | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Debnam------------------------- | 0+ | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thompson----------------------- | 15 | 1-4 | 4-6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| Swindle------------------------- | 0+ | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Team | 3 | ||||||
| Totals ------------------------- | 24-54 | 10-18 | 37 | 12 | 9 | 59 |
UNC Greensboro ------------------------- 26 20 - 46
Virginia Tech ------------------------- 26 33 - 59
3-point goals - UNCG (3-10): Koivisto 2-4, Toney 1-3, Stywall 0-1, Randall 0-1, Evans 0-1. Virginia Tech (1-13): Delaney 1-5, Allen 0-1, Hudson 0-1, Green 0-1, Boggs 0-2, Bell 0-3.
Turnovers - UNCG (23): Koivisto 4, Randall 4, Van Dussen 3, Toney 3, Sellers 2, Stywall 2, Team 2, Brown, Evans, Cole. Virginia Tech (12): Bell 5, Davila 3, Allen, Hudson, Delaney, Boggs.
Blocked shots - UNCG (4): Brown 2, Stywall, Cole. Virginia Tech (9): Allen 3, Bell 3, Davila 3.
Steals - UNCG (4): Randall, Van Dussen, Koivisto, Evans. Virginia Tech (10): Allen 6, Bell 2, Delaney, Thompson.
A - 9,693.
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