Hokies stun top-ranked Wake Forest 78-71

Deacs go down hard at home as fans shake their heads and begin to ask themselves, “Is this just Wake Forest playing like Wake Forest again?”

You just wished Wake could have kept that unbeaten streak going into the Duke game next week, but now everyone must come back down to earth and get ready to move on and prepare for the Blue Devils and the rest of their ACC games……

Will the top spot in the conference still be settled by Duke versus Wake Forest next week or will the winner of that game just be keeping first place warm until North Carolina comes crashing through the gate to claim their regular season title?

from theacc.com:

Virginia Tech’s big three of Malcolm Delaney, A.D. Vassallo and Jeff Allen combined for 53 points and the Hokies got solid contributions from their role players to pull of a stunning 78-71 victory over No. 1 Wake Forest in an ACC game played in front of 14,110 fans at Lawrence Joel Vetera! ns Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday night.

The victory marked Tech’s first over a No. 1-ranked team since 2007 when the Hokies downed North Carolina 94-88 at Cassell Coliseum. It also marked the program’s third ever victory over a No. 1-ranked team, joining the 69-56 win over Memphis in 1983 at Cassell. The Demon Deacons – the last team in the nation to lose a game – had moved to No. 1 in both the Associated Press and the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll on Monday, but struggled from the outset. Wake got into early foul trouble and led just one time in the game when L.D. Williams hit a lay-up with 15:56 to go in the first half to give the Demon Deacons an 8-7 lead. A jumper by Delaney with 12:53 left in the first half enabled the Hokies to retake the lead (10-8) and they never trailed again, leading the final 32:53 of the game.

A combination of terrific defense and hot shooting enabled the Hokies to lead by as many as 16 in the first half, by as many as 15 in the second half and by 13 with 6:28 to play after Allen buried a 3-pointer to give Tech a 67-54 lead.

That turned out to be Tech’s last basket of the game. The Demon Deacons scrambled back into it, going on a 17-2 run over the next 4:36 and cutting the lead to 71-69 on a 3-pointer by star guard Jeff Teague with 1:52 left.