Eddies Career Night Leads VT Past UNCG
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Junior forward Jarell Eddie scored a career-high 28 points and Virginia Tech hit a season-high 14 3-pointers to hold off UNC Greensboro 96-87 on Monday night.
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Senior guard Erick Green added a career-best 26 points and sophomore guard Robert Brown had 10 for the Hokies (4-0), who had to fend off a late Spartans' rally to remain undefeated.
Trevis Simpson scored 25 points and Derrell Armstrong added 23 for UNC Greensboro (1-3), which rallied from a 13-point deficit in the second half to go ahead 77-73 with 6:07 remaining.
The Hokies shot 45.3 percent (24 of 53) from the field, including 14 of 22 on 3-pointers, and hit 34 of 42 from the free-throw line Monday. Virginia Tech ended with a 41-38 rebounding advantage against the Spartans.
Still, that nearly wasn't enough, as UNC Greensboro -- now 1-46 against Atlantic Coast Conference teams -- fought back from a 14-point deficit in the first half to briefly lead before Virginia Tech rallied for a 45-41 margin at the break. UNC Greensboro overcame another double-digit Virginia Tech lead in the second half to challenge late.
The Hokies were up 67-54 with 14 minutes left in the second half when UNC Greensboro began whittling away at their lead. The Spartans went on a 23-6 run, capped by a pair of Simpson layups, giving UNC Greensboro its final lead.
Virginia Tech, which has won all eight meetings against the Spartans, responded with a 10-0 run to regain command. Green scored six points during the run, which ended with Eddie's fifth 3-pointer and an 83-77 Hokies lead with 2:52 left.
Kelvin McNeil had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Korey Van Dusen added 10 points for UNC Greensboro.
The Spartans led early in the first half, going up 7-6 less than three minutes in, when Virginia Tech went on a 17-2 run. Will Johnson hit three of the Hokies' four 3-pointers during the run, and Cadarian Raines' dunk put them up 23-9 with 12:48 left.
Virginia Tech would go up by 14 points again later in the half, leading 30-16 on Green's steal-and-dunk with 9:16 remaining. But the Spartans responded with a 17-2 run, capped by Kayel Locke's layup with 4:25 left, to put UNC Greensboro up 33-32, its final lead of the half.
After tying things at 35-35, the Hokies pulled back into the lead on Marquis Rankin's layup with 3:40 left, and followed that with a Jarrell 3-pointer and a Joey van Zegeren layup to pull ahead 42-35 with 1:55 remaining.
The Spartans made one final run, getting an Armstrong 3-pointer, a David Williams free throw and a McNeil layup to cut Virginia Tech's lead to 42-41 with 27 seconds left. But Eddie hit his third 3-pointer of the half at the buzzer to put the Hokies up by four points at intermission.