Malcolm Delaney helped Virginia Tech finally put away a ranked
team.
He had 28 points and a career-high nine assists, and Virginia
Tech raced out to a 35-point lead in the first half on the way to
an 81-66 victory over No. 23 Miami on Wednesday night.
Terrell Bell scored all of his career-best 13 points in the
first half for the Hokies (13-2, 1-1 ACC), who snapped a five-game
losing streak to ranked teams that dated to last season. Virginia
Tech went up 11-2 and then put the game away with a 35-8 run that
spanned nearly 13 minutes of the first half.
"It's so important to win this game because you have to win
your home games in the league," Virginia Tech head coach Seth
Greenberg said. "And it was so important to win this game so that
we had no self-doubt. We are a good team, but this league, I'm not
sure anyone is Kansas or Texas. Everyone, though, is really good."
Bell hit a 3-pointer with 2:43 to go and added a basket with
2:16 remaining to give the Hokies their biggest lead, 48-13. The
Hokies shot 62 percent (18 of 29) in the first half and led 50-23
at the break.
"It doesn't hurt when you make 7 of your first 9 3s,"
Greenberg said. "We had some guys who made some shots. You're a
whole lot smarter when you make shots. When you make shots, you're
a good coach. When you don't make shots, you're a bad coach."
Delaney, the ACC's leading scorer at better than 20 points
per game, connected of 6 of 14 from the floor but made 14 of 16
from the free-throw line.
Miami (15-2, 1-2) shot just 27 percent in the first half (7
of 26) and had its seven-game winning streak snapped. The ACC's
leader in 3-pointers made coming into the game (140) missed its
first eight attempts from beyond the arc. The Hurricanes were 6 of
27 on 3s for the game.
"They shot the ball way better from the perimeter than I
thought they would," Miami head coach Frank Haith said. "They
played very well and we didn't play very well."
Bell, who had scored in double figures only once this season,
went 5 of 6 from the floor. He had never hit more than one
3-pointer in a game in his career, but connected on all three of
his attempts -- all in the first half.
Jeff Allen added 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Hokies,
while Dorenzo Hudson had 11 points.
The Hurricanes had only one player in double figures. James
Dews led Miami with 11 points.
