Hokies win close one over Tigers

CLEMSON, S.C. -- Here it was again, the one defensive stand Virginia Tech needed to hang on to a win.

The clock ticked down just as it had in those five games earlier this season, the losses that broke the Hokies' hearts. Just as it had in this building a year ago, in the loss that helped snuff out their NCAA tournament dreams.

"Stay down," Tech coach Seth Greenberg told his team during a timeout, the Hokies leading Clemson by one point with 20 seconds left in the game.

Eight seconds later, A.D. Vassallo made two free throws, and Greenberg knew exactly what was coming: The Tigers would try to free Terrence Oglesby, the ACC's second-best 3-pointer shooter.

This is when they'd have to stay down. Oglesby had made 4 of 7 3s and beaten the Hokies several times with his pump fake. Or, as Greenberg put it, "We left our feet a zillion times today."

The clock at Littlejohn Coliseum ticked under 10 seconds.

Oglesby had the ball at the top of the key. Dorenzo Hudson ran out to defend him, feet firmly on the court, hands straight up. Stay down, he told himself, stay down.

Jeff Allen ran up to help Hudson in case the Tigers set a screen. But Oglesby stopped dribbling -- "I was an idiot," he said later -- and had to pass to Demontez Stitt.

He leaned for an off-balance 3-pointer that sailed over the hoop. Never had a chance. But now, all of a sudden, the Hokies still do. Their 80-77 win over the No. 12 Tigers ended a three-game losing streak, improved their ACC record to 7-6 and, with three games left in the regular season, put them one win away from making the NCAA tournament -- at least in the somewhat biased opinion of the guy who helped get the final defensive stop they so desperately needed.

"We need one more," said Hudson, a sophomore guard. "We're trying it to get all of them, actually, but we need one more to make it to the tournament. Eight and eight will definitely do it."

He can't help but browse the Internet and read the tournament projections. Greenberg knows his players are aware of the speculative chatter. So he urged them before last night's game to play loose but aggressive, to worry about nothing besides the things they needed to do last night -- namely, beat Clemson's full-court pressure defense and slow the Tigers' leading scorer, 6-7 forward Trevor Booker.

"What happens happens," he told them.

What happened was the Hokies consistently beat the press by lobbing the ball over it, thanks in part to Hank Thorns, their 5-9 point guard, who started for the first time this season. In 30 minutes, he had four assists and three turnovers. Tech had just 12 turnovers. The Tigers had forced a league-best 17.5 per game.

What happened was Tech shut down Booker in the second half by throwing an extra defender at him to limit his second-chance shots.

Freshman center Victor Davila, in particular, played more aggressively than usual.

"They did a good job of digging down on me," said Booker, who shot 6 of 9 in the first half and scored 15 points, but was 2 of 9 in the second half for six points.

And what happened, most importantly, were those final 12.5 seconds -- and how differently they unfolded for the Hokies, who had lost 10 games this season and five on an opponent's final shot.

"The difference between having a really good year and just a year is winning close games," Greenberg said.

Last year, the Hokies couldn't do it when it mattered most, losing by one at Clemson in the regular-season finale when Stitt made two free throws with 3.8 seconds left. The same result last night would have left them with a daunting path to the tournament, a path that, thanks to that long-awaited defensive stop, looks a bit more manageable.

"It takes a little pressure off your shoulders," forward J.T. Thompson said as he walked to the team bus, a bag over those shoulders, a smile on his face.

Contact Darryl Slater at (804) 649-6026 or dslater@timesdispatch.com.