BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) — Malcolm Delaney scored nine of his 23 points in a four-minute stretch late in the second half and Virginia Tech extended a three-point lead to as many as 12 Wednesday night to hang on and beat struggling Georgia Tech, 76-71.
A.D. Vassallo added 18 points and Jeff Allen had 15 and nine rebounds for the Hokies (16-7, 6-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who won their second straight after losing two in a row.
It was the third consecutive loss and the eighth in nine games for the Yellow Jackets (10-13, 1-9), who dropped a half-game behind 1-8 Virginia and into last place in the conference.
Gani Lawal led Georgia Tech with 23 points and eight rebounds and Alade Aminu scored 13.
The Hokies opened their biggest lead at 50-37 on two free throws by Cheick Diakite with 14:54 left, then got sloppy. They turned it over on five consecutive possessions without getting off a shot as the Yellow Jackets scored 10 straight points to close to within 50-47.
The Hokies' lead was still three with nine minutes left before Vassallo hit a 3-pointer and two free throws, Delaney hit six consecutive free throws and Diakite beat the shot clock with a jumper from the foul line, restoring the Hokies' advantage to 65-54 with 5:29 left.
Two 3-pointers by Iman Shumpert and another by Lance Storrs pulled the Yellow Jackets to within 72-67 with 1:53 left, and Aminu's putback after a Hokies turnover made it 72-69.
After Delaney made a pair of free throws — he was 11-for-11 in the final 8:01 — to make it 74-69, Lawal's basket again made it a three-point game with 53.9 seconds left. The Hokies had to use two timeouts to get the ball inbounds, but when they did, Hank Thorns was fouled, made both shots with 48.5 seconds left to rebuild the margin to five and Virginia Tech held on.
Diakite added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Hokies.
The Hokies led throughout the first half, using an early 10-4 run to take a 17-10 lead, then added a 13-4 burst to end the half and lead 41-31 at the break. Allen had 15 points and eight rebounds by halftime, and Delaney ended the half with a banker that just beat the buzzer.
Lawal had 11 points and seven points at intermission for Georgia Tech.
