Hurryin' Hokies Knock Off #1 Wake Forest

There were no slingshots handy in Winston-Salem Wednesday, but Virginia Tech didn’t need any to slay a giant, knocking off #1 Wake Forest 78-71.

Malcolm Delaney led the Hokies (13-5, 3-1) with 21 points and 8 rebounds and both Jeff Allen and A.D. Vassallo added 16.

Tech got huge contributions off the bench but none bigger than those from Cheick Diakite. The 6-9 senior from Mali came into the game averaging just 3.6 points per game but totaled 8 points and 5 rebounds to go along with 1 block helping knock off the top-ranked team.

Guard Jeff Teague paced Wake Forest (16-1, 3-1) with 23 points and forward James Johnson added 18 before being one of three Demon Deacons to foul out of the game.

The loss means there are no longer any undefeated teams in college basketball.

For the Hokies, the game marked the program’s third victory all time over the #1 team, the others coming in 1983 over Memphis and 2007 over North Carolina.

Tech is now 3-7 all-time against the #1 team, this victory coming in the program’s 100th season of competition.

The Hokies now head home to Blacksburg where they will host Miami (14-4, 3-2) Sunday at 5:30. Wake Forest will have a week off before hosting #2 Duke (17-1, 4-0).

Hokies Take Bite Out Of Big Apple

Photo Credit/AP Photo Steve Helber

For the second year in a row Virginia Tech won the Aeropostale Holiday Festival by defeating St. John's 81-67 Sunday in Madison Square Garden.

For the second game in a row, Tech's Malcolm Delaney played the entire 40 minutes scoring 22 points to go along with 8 assists en route to earning tournament MVP honors.

Last year's MVP, A.D. Vassallo also went the distance in this one and had another fine day adding 24 points and 8 rebounds.

Jeff Allen had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds despite playing just 24 minutes due to foul trouble. While Allen still has a penchant for making some silly fouls, he also has been the victim of some horrible calls including one today when two St. John's players fell over and he got whistled despite not touching them.

One could surmise that some of the tough calls going against Allen are retribution for his "bumping" an official last season. Food for thought at the very least.

Virginia Tech (8-4) will now have a week off before traveling to Charleston Southern (5-5) for their final preparation for conference play. Tech kicks off it's ACC slate Sunday, January 4 at Duke.