Hokies Hoops, Vol. 10 (Maryland Madness edition) ...

I’ll just steal the first line of my story for the newspaper to get us started here: What a night for 10,000 people not to have a working bathroom nearby.

At some point before Virginia Tech’s scheduled 4 p.m. tip against Maryland, a catering truck ran into a fire hydrant near Cassell Coliseum, causing a water main to burst. So the game was delayed until 6:30. Then, because of TV, pushed back to 7.

In that time, two more water mains burst and the arena was rendered toilet-less. The johns wouldn’t flush. NOT an ideal situation. Fans – who, undaunted, packed the place and mostly complied with the night’s “whiteout” them, and were ROWDY – were informed that they could use the facilities at one of four nearby buildings.

That seemed like a logistical nightmare and it looked like most fans chose to hold it ... although so many men chose to urinate in the grass just outside Cassell at halftime that it sounded a little like a waterfall.

And to top it all off, the bathroom-deprived crowd had to squirm through a nearly three-hour, double-overtime thriller. Then, as their reward, had to watch the home Hokies fall, 104-101, to the Terps.

It was an amazing game to watch, but no doubt agonizing for Tech’s players and coaches. Forward Jeff Allen finally broke his string of four consecutive games in foul trouble – playing 20 minutes or fewer in each of them – by playing hard and smart throughout on Saturday. He was never in foul trouble, played 44 minutes, scored 25 points and grabbed 15 rebounds.

Malcolm Delaney also poured in 27, including a coast-to-coast drive and lay-up with nine-tenths of a second left in regulation to force the first OT. But Delaney, an 85-percent free-throw shooter, missed TWO with Tech down 97-95 late in the second OT. What are the chances of that? Similarly, until a three-point play that gave the Hokies hope at the end of the game, Allen had gone scoreless since the eight-minute mark in regulation. He also had two big turnovers in the first OT.

Meanwhile, Maryland star Greivis Vasquez – a willing villain – went NUTS on Tech in the second half. Booed every single time he touched the ball, Vasquez shot just 2 of 10 in the first half. Many fans chanted, “USA! USA!” when the Venezuela native shot free throws. I thought that was a not-so-classy, borderline racist move and one I would not recommend the Hokie Nation continue. It doesn’t play well on TV (or in person).

Perhaps Vasquez used that for motivation, because he came out of the locker room on FIRE. He scored 15 points in the first 5:30 of the second half and had 19 points in the first nine minutes. He scored 33 in the game’s final 30 minutes.

His 41 total points were a career high. They were the second-most points any player has ever scored on the Hokies in Blacksburg, eighth-most in any game, anywhere. Vasquez also became just the eighth player in ACC history to drop 40-plus on the road in a league game.

Also of note from this one: It was the highest scoring ACC game since a Wake-UNC shootout in triple-overtime in 2003.

In the end, it came down to a true freshman, Erick Green, missing a 3-pointer with three seconds left in the second OT. He got the ball from Delaney, who had hoped to drive to the hoop – Tech only needed two to tie, after all – but was cut off and dished it.

The result is disappointing, no doubt, for the Hokies (21-7, 8-6), who have lost three straight and are now firmly back on the NCAA tournament bubble. This would’ve been Tech’s most-impressive win (and third against an RPI top-50 foe), but it slipped away. Many folks agree that the Hokies will be in a perilous position with the selection committee unless they win both of their final two regular-season games (home vs. N.C. State on Wednesday and at Georgia Tech on Saturday).

There’s a lot to stress about. But there were certainly some things to be pleased with Saturday night. Allen looked like a star for most of the game, and for the first time in a long time. Delaney, while he missed those free throws, made some monster plays previously to give the Hokies a chance. Oh, and reserve J.T. Thompson continues to make big-time plays.

He buried a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in regulation to tie the game. He finished with 15 points, nine rebounds, a block and a steal. And, ho-hum, Dorenzo Hudson shot 50 percent and scored 21 points.

This is a pretty good Tech team, which nearly knocked off Maryland (clearly the ACC’s second-best squad), and looks to have a whole lot of fight in it. The Hokies, though, will need every bit of their scrappy, stick-to-it-iveness this week. They need two wins to be in.

Here was the Head Hokie’s take on the loss ...

HOKIES COACH SETH GREENBERG

ON TECH’S HOT START GIVING WAY TO THREE TOUGH LOSSES: “Everyone’s going to say we’ve lost three in a row. Well, we played our tails off at Duke. We didn’t play well against, I think, a much-improved Boston College team (on the road), and we played our tails off today. So we’re a pretty good team. We’re one or two plays from winning at Duke and we’re one play from probably winning here. If you sat and watched that game, you thought we were a pretty good team. So we’ve just got to go out and win the next game. That’s what we’ve got to do: go win the next game.”

ON GREIVIS VASQUEZ GOING OFF FOR 41 POINTS: “Well, he’s good. He’s a handful in every game. He’s a really good player. He changes speeds, changes direction. He made that big 3 off the stagger, off the re-screen. The guy’s a good player.”

ON WHETHER HE CHANGES ANYTHING WITH HIS TEAM HEADING INTO THE FINAL TWO REGULAR-SEASON GAMES, WHICH TECH MIGHT NEED TO WIN TO MAKE THE NCAA TOURNEY: “No. We don’t change our approach at all. Our approach is real simple. If we are who we think we are – and I’m confident that we are – we’re going to have a great day of practice on Monday. Tomorrow (Sunday) we’re doing an event with the Special Olympics, which I think is really important. We’ll have a great day of practice on Monday, a great day of preparation no Tuesday and we’ll come out and try to continue to play good basketball.”

ON JEFF ALLEN PLAYING 44 MINUTES, GETTING 25 POINTS AND 15 REBOUNDS: “Pretty good, huh? What we wanted to do was, we wanted to go at (Landon) Milbourne (who fouled out with eight points) ... make him guard. We made a concerted effort of going in to Jeff. And then Jeff played really hard tonight.”

ON MALCOLM DELANEY’S TWO MISSED FREE THROWS IN THE SECOND OT, WITH TECH DOWN 97-95, DESPITE BEING AN 85 PERCENT FT SHOOTER: “That had nothing to do with (the loss). He’s human. This isn’t like the Iron Mike that throws pitches in baseball. He’s human. He’s the same guy that got the ball up the court in five seconds and laid it in to extend the game, so he’s in position to shoot those free throws. I thought the guy was really good today.”

ON WHETHER THE SHOT AT THE END, TRUE FRESHMAN ERICK GREEN (NOT A GREAT SHOOTER TO THIS POINT) TAKING A THREE IN THE CORNER WHEN TECH NEEDED TWO POINTS TO TIE: “We wanted to make a play going to the basket and they stopped the ball, so you’ve got to make the right play. (Delaney) made the right play. Erick had room and rhythm. I just wish we brought it at the defense a little faster. But, I mean, Erick makes that shot. He makes that shot in practice.”

ON THIS TEAM’S TOUGHNESS AND RESILIENCY SO FAR THIS SEASON, AND HOW THIS FINAL WEEK WILL TEST THAT: “I believe in this team. We lost a tough game at Duke. We lost a brutal game here. And we lost a road game. I believe in this team. I really like our basketball team. I have no doubts, and I’d be shocked if we don’t come out and play at a very high level Wednesday. Again, this is the ACC and that doesn’t guarantee you’re going to win. But I’d be shocked if we didn’t come out and play at a very high level.”

ON HOW THE THREE-HOUR DELAY AFFECTED THE TEAM: “I sent them home. I said, ‘Come back an hour and 40 minutes prior and go back to your normal routine.’ How could it affect us? What an atmosphere. That was as good an atmosphere as anywhere in the country. I challenge anyone to have a better atmosphere. Maybe (the fans) were so excited because they wanted to go to the bathroom.”

ON WHAT HE DID DURING THE DELAY: “I went and worked out and watched Carolina-Wake.”

ON RESERVE J.T. THOMPSON HITTING THE GAME-TYING THREE IN THE FINAL SECONDS OF REGULATION AND ALL THE BIG PLAYS HE HAS BEEN MAKING OFF THE BENCH: “He’s playing so hard. He is just a warrior. He gives you every ounce of energy he has in his body.”

ON GUARD DORENZO HUDSON BRIEFLY LEAVING THE GAME TO HAVE HIS FOOT CHECKED OUT: “He’s as fine as he’s been all season. We hold him out of practice most of the time and he’s in a boot right now. But he’s playing through it.”

ON TECH BEING BETTER OFFENSIVELY IN THIS GAME: “I thought we ran good offense tonight. Offense is good when the ball is going in. The second half, we shot 57 percent. It’s the same offense we’re running when we shoot 37 percent, except when the ball goes in, I’m a lot smarter. It was smarter for a while there, then I got dumb at the end.”

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