The Virginia Tech basketball team looked like a team possessed Monday night at Cassell Coliseum.
Jumping out to an early 18-4 lead, Tech held on the rest of the way to easily defeat VMI 87-74, their fourth straight victory over the visitors from Lexington in the state rivalry.
VMI took its only lead of the game at 2-0 on the first basket of the contest, then watched as a hot-shooting Hokie squad took control by hitting 66.7 % of its shots from the field in the opening half on the way to a commanding 51-27 lead at the break.
The game was a matchup between longtime friends, Tech first-year head coach Buzz Williams and his VMI counterpart Duggar Baucom who has brought the Keydet program to new heights since taking over in Lexington in 2005, despite the difficult challenges of recruiting at an all-military Division-I program.
Baucom is now 0-4 against the Hokies with the last Keydet win in Blacksburg coming in 1997, an 8-point win engineered by former Keydets head coach Bart Bellairs. VMI did knock off Tech in Lexington in 2004 by six points, the year before Baucom’s arrival.
VMI was coming off a long exam break and the rust showed in the first half as the Keydets found the Cassell rims unfriendly in falling behind by 24.
That made for a hole too deep to crawl out of, despite VMI entering the game ranked second in Division I scoring offense with an run-and-gun signature style that Baucom has described, “We want to run up court and shoot before we have a chance to turn it over.”
A fresh Tech team, which was coming off a win against The Citadel on Saturday in Blacksburg, dominated in the paint and had success with the fast-break all evening.
Despite the huge halftime deficit, VMI fought back in the second half to cut the Tech lead to single digits. But, the Hokies converted down the stretch to secure the final margin of victory.
Justin Bibbs led the Tech scoring with a game-high 20 points, including 6-of-10 from the field and 8-of-10 from the charity stripe. Devin Wilson followed with 16 points for the Hokies, with freshman Jalen Hudson netting a career-high 12.
Tim Marshall paced the VMI attack with 18 points, including a rare 4-point play during the second half Keydet comeback. Season scoring leader QJ Peterson followed with 14 Keydet points despite being shut out from behind-the-arc.
The game was an anniversary of sorts for Baucom. It was 24 years ago this week that Baucom suffered a heart attack as a state trooper in North Carolina, and was advised by his doctors to change careers to avoid the stress of law enforcement.
Bill Turner
