Hokies Hoops, Vol. 8 (Wake. Wow. edition) ...

It’s pretty late and I’m pretty tired. That was an exhausting game to watch. So I’m going to simply lay the basics on you and get to the good stuff, the post-game reaction to the unlikeliest of victories. (We say that a lot about this team, don’t we?)

Key stats:

The Hokies shot 33.3 percent in the first half and 51.6 percent in the second.

Wake Forest’s best big man, Al-Farouq Aminu, torched Tech for 21 points in the first half. He scored four after the break.

The Hokies got eight straight points – all of them answers to Wake buckets that kept the Deacons from extending its lead past 11 points – from back-up forward J.T. Thompson during one stretch in the second half. He scored 10 points in barely four minutes and finished with 16 points and five rebounds (including a huge offensive board off a missed free throw when the game was tight late).

Tech got 14 (FOURTEEN) rebounds and four blocks from wingman Terrell Bell, who is easily the Hokies’ biggest hustle guy. He was part of a KEY sequence, with Tech trialing 65-61 and about nine minutes left. Bell had the ball stolen by Wake’s C.J. Harris who headed for a lay-up on the other end. But Bell chased him down, blocked it from behind, and Malcolm Delaney went the other way to convert a circus shot and 3-point play. HUGE swing.

The Hokies got 20 minutes, four rebounds and one MONSTROUS block from freshman Cadarian Raines in his biggest contribution to date. He started the sequence that changed the game for good. He swatted a shot to near mid-court, where Dorenzo Hudson snatched it ... and threw down a nasty dunk on Deacons star Ish Smith. Cassell Coliseum went nuts after the play, and stayed that way. Hudson finished with 21 points and seven rebounds.

Speaking of which, Tech’s starting three guards (if you count Bell) out-rebounded Wake’s three 30-13. Very big stat.

Finally ... the Hokies got 31 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals from its star, Delaney, who buried a 3-pointer with under seven minutes to go that gave Tech its first lead since it was 12-11 with 14:01 left in the first half.

So it all adds up to the Hokies coming back from down 11 points, winning 87-83, and taking sole possession of second place in the ACC. Wow.

Tech is 21-4 overall, 8-3 in the league and has won five straight conference games for the first time since joining the ACC in 2004. The Hokies have won 8 of 9 overall and improved to 7-1 in games decided by six points or fewer, or in overtime. This is a team that lost six games on the opponents’ final possession last season.

Take it away, fellas ...

G/F TERRELL BELL

ON GOING FROM GOAT TO HERO AFTER A TURNOVER, THEN BLOCKING A LAY-UP ON THE OTHER END, LEADING TO A 3-POINT PLAY BY MALCOLM DELANEY THAT CHANGED THE GAME: “I just know I’ve got to get back. I don’t panic too much. I know I can use my length against a smaller guard, and that’s what I did.”

ON HAVING A KNACK FOR TRAILING BLOCKS LIKE THAT: “I know when the smaller guard ain’t got nobody to pass it to, he’s got to shoot it, so I just time it.”

ON EMBRACING HIS ROLE AS A SPARKPLUG ON THIS TEAM, NEVER MORE PRESENT THAN TONIGHT WITH 14 REBOUNDS AND FOUR BLOCKS: “It feels great that we’re supporting our leaders. We’re going to keep doing that throughout the season. We know our roles and we know what we do best, and everybody embraces their role.”

ON WINNING SO MANY TIGHT GAMES: “We’ve got a junior class that’s been playing together a long time, so we’ve got a great chemistry out there.”

ON WHETHER, IN ALL HONESTY, IT FELT LIKE THIS ONE WAS SLIPPING AWAY: “It’s hard when we score and they score and we turn it over. But like Coach Greenberg says: Keep working and keep fighting and we always pull it out.”

ON GETTING A BIG OFFENSIVE REBOUND THAT LED TO HIS GAME-TYING FREE THROW: “I just try to go to the rim every time. Go to the rim. I was coming from the wing and I just used my length and reached out to get it. It might be wrong to expect a miss (every shot), but in my head, I’m expecting it to miss so I can go get the rebound.”

ON TECH BEING MORE COMFORTABLE IN LOW-SCORING, UGLY GAMES AND WHETHER HE FELT OUT OF HIS ELEMENT TONIGHT: “Not at all. We had to chase Ish and we had to build a wall against him, and that’s what we did.” F J.T. THOMPSON

ON WHY WAKE STAR AMINU HAD JUST FOUR POINTS IN THE SECOND HALF AFTER 21 IN THE FIRST: “Maybe he wasn’t getting it as much as he expected, but I’m not quite sure why. The whole game, we wanted to double (him), but I just think in the second half, we made it harder for him to catch it so close to the rim. We tried to front him more.”

ON GETTING WAKE’S BIG GUYS IN FOUL TROUBLE IN THE SECOND HALF AND WHETHER THEY WERE TRYING TO: “(Greenberg) just wanted us to go in there and pump fake, because we knew they were going to jump – they’re all shot-blockers – then just find their body. So that’s what all the guys tried to do.”

G DORENZO HUDSON

ON WANTING RESPECT: “Coming into that game, people were not really showing us the respect that we feel like we need. So we’re not trying to feed into that. We’re just trying to play ball and try to take care of the next team in front of us.”

ON TRADING BUCKETS AFTER WAKE GOT IT TO 11, THEN RAINES’ BIG BLOCK AND HIS DUNK OVER ISH SMITH IGNITING TECH: “I felt like we really just needed something to get us jump-started. We needed something to get the crowd into the game. We kind of needed to get our bench into the game. So I felt like that was a great opportunity to go at the rim as hard as I could and try to make something happen.”

ON ANOTHER BIG SWING BEING BELL’S TURNOVER, THEN BLOCK, THEN DELANEY’S 3-POINT PLAY: “Bell is a great defender. He’s doing a great job blocking shots and getting rebounds. I knew when he turned the ball over, he was going to go try to make the block.”

ON PLAYING THE BIGGEST TEAM IN THE LEAGUE AND WINNING DESPITE JUST 28 COMBINED MINUTES FROM STARTING FORWARDS JEFF ALLEN AND VICTOR DAVILA: “We just grind it out. We had guys come in and give us big minutes. If someone’s having a bad night, we’ve got plenty of guys who can step up and take the role of top players.”

ON SUNDAY’S GAME AT DUKE THAT IS ESSENTIALLY FOR A TIE FOR THE ACC LEAD: “That’s what we’re going for. We’re just trying to let everyone know that we deserve to be in the league. We want to get that win, that first-place win.”

G MALCOLM DELANEY

ON WHETHER TECH SHOULD BE A TOP-25 TEAM AFTER THIS WIN: “I guess. We don’t really pay attention to the polls. We’re used to playing as one of the bottom-feeders in the league. We play with a chip on our shoulder because of that. We don’t really care about (polls) right now. We’re trying to win the ACC and we’re in perfect position to do that. If we win more games, that stuff will happen.”

ON WHETHER, IN ALL HONESTY, THAT GAME EVER FELT LIKE IT WAS SLIPPING AWAY: “No, never, not once in that game did I feel like we were out of that game. If you listened to every huddle, we were always positive, saying we were going to get a run and get some stops. We never feel like we’re going to lose games, and that’s why we always come back. We’ve got confidence and that’s a big part of the team. I always say this, but last year we would’ve lost this game. Down 11 to Wake Forest? We wouldn’t have won that game. We’ve just got a different mentality this year. ... Last year, it was like we just broke down in these type games. We started taking bad shots. We started doing dumb stuff. It’s just totally different. You can just see that, probably because we’re a more mature team.”

ON THE TWO BIG, GAME-TURNING SEQUENCES STARTING WITH BLOCKS (BY RAINES, THEN BELL): “Big. Getting stops, that’s what we base our team on. They’re a good offensive team and it’s tough to shut them out completely ... but we got the stops when we needed to and got out in transition and that’s what got us going.”

ON SPEEDY WAKE GUARD ISH SMITH: “Ish is probably the fastest player in the country. He scored a lot at the end of the game. We weren’t trying to foul ... we were kind of giving up the two. But in the first half ... Ish wasn’t really causing the problems. It was the other guard they have, the freshman. He was pitching ahead. We weren’t used to that in the scouting report. We had to adjust to that. We were used to Ish pushing it.”

ON BEING IN A RHYTHM LATE, SHOOTING-WISE: “I was feeling good. I’ve been shooting good. The last couple games, I hadn’t been hitting shots, but I’ve been shooting good when I’ve been working out. I was confident today and when I got the first couple to go down for me, it was like, ‘I’m kind of feeling it.’ I knew when we went on that run that I had to knock down some shots.”

VT COACH SETH GREENBERG

OPENING REMARKS: “That was just a good, hard-fought basketball game with two teams that are extremely competitive and prideful. I’m just really proud of our guys. ... We were determined, resilient, we stayed together. In the second half, that was probably the best we’ve executed all season. The first half, we didn’t do a very good job blocking out and keeping Aminu off the glass. And they made shots. ... The second half, we did a better job of getting back and rebounding the basketball. Terrell Bell just had a monster, monster game – 14 rebounds, four blocks. I told our guys yesterday that the most important thing was our guards rebounding the ball, because the game would be so physical for our front court players. They keep people off the glass. Our guards had to come back and rebound the ball. In fact, I called Terrell last night and said, ‘Do you know what I’m talking about?’ Obviously he understood. ... J.T. Thompson is just giving us great, great minutes. He was so aggressive, attacking the defense. That offensive rebound he came up with on the free throw ... those type of plays are reflective of what this team is all about. When we went zone (defense), we came up with some 50-50 balls. If you think about how we won that game ... we won that game with just determination and resiliency and a lot of guys contributing. Even Jeff, even in foul trouble, I thought he really gave us good minutes. And then Malcolm was just terrific. Terrific. He was extremely patient coming off screens, waiting on screens. Our guys set good screens. Those two 3s (Delaney) made were huge. So it’s a great win for our basketball team, and now our reward is we get to go to Durham (to play Duke on Sunday night).”

ON WAKE CONTINUING TO ANSWER EVER TIME TECH CUT IT FROM 11 TO NINE POINTS, THEN THE SEQUENCE OF RAINES’ BLOCK AND HUDSON’S DUNK: “Raines gave us just great minutes. And Dorenzo’s dunk, what a play that was. Cadarian just gave us great minutes. He helped us protect the front of the rim; he was active; he was alert. We’ve just got to get him to pursue the ball with two hands, but he gave us a big, physical body. To defend Victor (Davila), he fell on his tailbone the other day and he just gutted it out, playing today. He was really, really hurt, but he wanted to play. And he gave us a boost there in the second half. Everyone gave us minutes.”

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