CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Virginia Tech had a chance to win but J.T. Thompson missed a jumper and Hansbrough got the rebound. After a timeout, UNC won 68-66 on a Hansbrough jumper with 0.8 seconds remaining.
It was a nice change of pace for this tournament, which only saw one of the first eight games decided by single digits.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Deron Washington fouled out when he got Wayne Ellington's arm on a 3-point attempt with 1:28 to go and the game tied at 64. Ellington hit two of three for a two point lead. But A.D. Vassallo drew a foul at the other end and hit both to tie it again at the 1:10 mark.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Wayne Ellington hit a three to tie the game at 59, and then the Tar Heels tied up Jeff Allen to get the ball back. Washington then fouled Ellington at the other end, but Ellington bumped Washington and got called for a technical. It's going to be a wild finish.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Carolina has had its chances to tie this game. But whenever they get a crack at a shot that would turn this place into a crazyhouse, they can't seem to knock it down. We're under four minutes now and Tech is up three with the ball.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Wow. Deron Washington just threw down a sick one-hander on the receiving end of an inbounds alley-oop from the sideline. That put Virginia Tech up 59-52.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Virginia Tech opened up another eight point lead here in the second half before UNC answered back with six consecutive points to reinvigorate the crowd here. The celebration was short-lived, though, as Deron Washington got a layup and one at the other end.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Dorenzo Hudson just hit a three for the Hokies to give them a 48-42 lead. And one interesting note: This was the first halftime tie for either team this season. Hey, better late than never.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Great halftime note: Apparently, near the end of the half, after A.D. Vassallo was called for a foul against UNC point guard Ty Lawson, Vassallo went over to press row and wrote on one reporter's note pad, "AD not foul." I don't know what's funnier, that he bothered to do such a ridiculous thing or the grammar issues involved.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - It looks like neither of these teams is all that interested in playing defense. That probably makes the coaches very angry, but it's a heck of a lot of fun for anyone watching. Both teams are shooting better than 40 percent right now, and the game is tied at 38. Since only one of the eight games preceding this one in the ACC Tournament was decided by a single-digit margin, all of this bodes well for some second-half fun.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - There probably aren't many crowds more upset than this one right now. The Tar Heels did cut the Hokies' lead to two, but the many, many UNC fans here feel, um, upset with the officiating at the moment and are being pretty vociferous about that displeasure. But a Hansbrough basket and a Tech foul against Hansbrough on the next possession has changed their tune a bit. After the timeout, Hansbrough can tie the game by making both.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Virginia Tech sure doesn't look like a team that lost by 39 to UNC earlier this year. Malcolm Delaney has nine points and a hot hand, while Deron Washington just rolled in a 3-pointer that put the Hokies up 29-21 on the No. 1 Tar Heels.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Virginia Tech sure doesn't look like a team that lost by 39 to UNC earlier this year. Malcolm Delaney has nine points and a hot hand, while Deron Washington just rolled in a 3-pointer that put the Hokies up 29-21 on the No. 1 Tar Heels.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Game after game, Roy Williams stresses getting the ball inside to Tyler Hansbrough. The Heels are doing that, but not very deep inside. Hansbrough has six points so far, but it's all on jump shots. Speaking of jumpers, A.D. Vassallo nailed a three for Tech and Danny Green answered at the other end with a layup and foul. He'll shoot a freebie after the TV timeout, but right now it's 16-15 Hokies.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Game after game, Roy Williams stresses getting the ball inside to Tyler Hansbrough. The Heels are doing that, but not very deep inside. Hansbrough has six points so far, but it's all on jump shots. Speaking of jumpers, A.D. Vassallo nailed a three for Tech and Danny Green answered at the other end with a layup and foul. He'll shoot a freebie after the TV timeout, but right now it's 16-15 Hokies.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - There have already been a lot of whistles at the start of this one, but when the teams are actually playing, UNC and Va. Tech have been trading baskets and are tied at seven. It's clearly a pro-Carolina crowd in the building, but the Hokies aren't letting that affect them so far.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - We're almost ready to tip off the first ACC semifinal, between top seed North Carolina and No. 4 Virginia Tech. Today marks the first time since 2002 that the top four seeds have advanced to the semifinals.
When these two teams last met on Feb. 16, the Tar Heels brought one of their best defensive efforts of the year. It was a 39-point win for Carolina and a game the Hokies -- who trailed by as many as 47 -- would probably rather forget. And since UNC will have Ty Lawson this time around, who knows how ugly it could get?
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - When the Hokies needed to turn it on, they did. Fourth-seeded Virginia Tech turned a close game into a 63-49 win against No. 5-seed Miami in the second ACC quarterfinal of the day.
Miami, which looked lackluster a day earlier in beating an atrocious N.C. State team, didn't bring much down the stretch in this one. Star guard Jack McClinton finished with 16 points but was virtually invisible the entire game.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - When the Hokies needed to turn it on, they did. Fourth-seeded Virginia Tech turned a close game into a 63-49 win against No. 5-seed Miami in the second ACC quarterfinal of the day.
Miami, which looked lackluster a day earlier in beating an atrocious N.C. State team, didn't bring much down the stretch in this one. Star guard Jack McClinton finished with 16 points but was virtually invisible the entire game.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The Hokies are taking control now, it appears, knocking down shots and playing far better defense. Their last stop was a vicious shot block out of bounds and into the lens of a TV camera. Looks like the guy whose face was attached to the back end of the camera is okay, though, and the Hokies are up 55-44 with 3 1/2 to go.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Miami just isn't being tough enough right now on the glass in comparison to Virginia Tech. The Hokies just got somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 offensive rebounds on one possession to (eventually) set up a 3-pointer by Malcom Delaney that put VT up 44-42. In a game this close, it's those efforts that are going to be the difference. Frankly, Tech looks like it wants this win more at the moment.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Hey, we've got a Jack McClinton sighting. Apparently he had actually been on the court the whole time, just not doing much. But he just knocked in an Ivory-pure 3-pointer to tie the game at 33. Miami needs more of that from its star.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Neither team is really overwhelmingly great at this point in the game, but Virginia Tech seems to be playing with a little more of an edge, and A.D. Vassallo was the best player out there in the first half. He has really come into his own as complement to Deron Washington and has 11 points at the half as the Hokies lead 27-23 at the break.
Tech shot 36.7 percent and Miami 33.3 -- as well as a combined 18 turnovers -- so both teams could stand to come out with a better showing in the second half.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - After a rebounded air ball, Miami guard James Dews got a pass about 30 feet from the basket with the shot clock at two. So what did he do? Line up, hoist it ... and swish it through. Pretty impressive.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - With all the bubble teams crashing and burning yesterday, Miami must feel pretty confident that it's in the NCAA Tournament. But Virginia Tech knows it needs at least one good win to have a shot at cracking the field, and right now the Hokies are working hard against the Canes. They're up 12-11 right now, but maybe they are too aggressive, as evidenced by a Deron Washington charge a moment ago.
NEW YORK -- Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg wanted his team to forget about its heartbreaking loss to Wake Forest last week in its ACC opener.
And the Hokies seemed to do that Saturday afternoon in an ugly 54-48 victory over Big East foe St. John's to claim this year's Aeropostale Holiday Festival championship.
"It is a Big East win," Greenberg said matter-of-factly afterward. "It is a big win. I think what you saw was two young basketball teams trying to develop an identity.
The Blacksburg, Va., school got it done with its two veterans over the course of 40 minutes, as A.D. Vassallo paced Virginia Tech with 16 points in addition to seven rebounds and Deron Washington added 10 points and eight boards of his own.
"If we play the way we're capable of, we can play in the big games," Washington told me outside the Virginia Tech locker room. "We learned a lot from our loss to Wake Forest last week and tried to bring our intensity today."
Whatever the Hokies brought, it seemed to work well enough to squeak out a victory over the Johnnies, who shot a miserable 28.3 percent from the floor for the game in addition to 26.7-percent shooting from behind the three-point line.
"They beat us in a hard game," St. John's coach Norm Roberts confessed. "Both teams played ugly. Both teams had 20 turnovers. It was a hard fought game. We didn't make shots. [But] I am not discouraged at all. They tried hard. I am not going to get down this team. We had a chance to win it all of the way through it."
For as poorly as the Red Storm played at times, St. John's was in the game until the bitter end. In fact, the Johnnies were down by just three after Larry Wright drained a three-pointer with 34 seconds left.
But it was Malcolm Delaney who sunk a pair of free throws on the ensuing possession, and with the lead back up to five, there was little hope of St. John's leaving its home court with a Holiday Festival title, something that certainly was the goal for Roberts when he scheduled his team to play in the holiday tournament way before the 2007-08 season started.
"This was a good game for us to get prepared for the Big East," Roberts added. "Let's not forget, Virginia Tech is a good team. There are going to be a lot of games that are going to be like this in the Big East."
Anthony Mason, Jr. led St. John's in scoring for the second straight night, dropping in 12 points to go along with four assists and two steals. Eugene Lawrence was the other Red Storm player to score in double figures with 10, and the senior guard from Brooklyn also grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.
"We have to get the next one," Mason said, looking rather disinterested in talking to the media following a tight loss in front of a hometown crowd. "You can't get frustrated. You get frustrated, then you start making mistakes.
We have to get back in the gym, get prepared and get ready for Syracuse [next week]."
"Every loss hurts the same," added Justin Burrell, who finished with six points, six rebounds and three blocks in 33 minutes. "They all feel the same."
For Roberts and St. John's, they're just hoping that feeling doesn't run its course through the rest of the season.
NEW YORK -- We're winding down to the final minute of action here at MSG, and it looks like Virginia Tech is going to leave the Big Apple with a championship trophy as the only team outside the state of New York to play in this year's Aeropostale Holiday Festival.
That's something that Hokies coach Seth Greenberg can be happy about with ACC play starting up very soon, and it looks like Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo will be the two guys he'll be counting on to lead VT through the ever-competitive conference.
NEW YORK -- There haven't been a lot of nice plays in today's slugfest, or slopfest (whichever you prefer), but Virginia Tech's A.D. Vassallo has the Hokies back in front by seven, 43-36, with four minutes remaining.
The junior took a rebound and pushed it down the floor to find Marcus Travis open in the corner for a three, which he buried right in front of his own bench, forcing Norm Roberts to take a timeout right after. It looks like the Johnnies will have to play a different brand of basketball in these final four minutes if they hope to come away with a win.
We'll be back with more in a minute.
NEW YORK -- St. John's closed the gap on Virginia Tech, getting within two points of the Hokies with eight minutes remaining in this one, but A.D. Vassallo just answered with two straight baskets on consecutive trips down the floor.
Though Anthony Mason, Jr. and Eugene Lawrence have both shown at times that they can make big shots for the Johnnies, they haven't so far. Instead, it's been Vassallo and his scoring partner Deron Washington that have got it done for Seth Greenberg's ball club.
With 5:40 remaining, it's Virginia Tech 38, St. John's 36.
NEW YORK -- The hometown faithful here at Madison Square Garden is getting a little restless with St. John's losing ground on Virginia Tech in tonight's Holiday Festival championship game.
It looks like Larry Wright is OK, however, dispelling my earlier speculation of a serious knee injury suffered at the beginning of this half.
St. John's just got a big block from Justin Burrell, as the freshman just swatted the ball into the near-empty stands, and Wright has just hit two free throws, bringing the Red Storm to within six with the score 32-26 in favor of Virginia Tech.
NEW YORK -- We're about five minutes into the second half of our , and Virginia Tech has started to take control with a nice little run that has the Hokies up, 30-24.
The Johnnies have started the half looking rather lackadaisical and Larry Wright just went down a few minutes ago with what looked like a knee injury. From the way he was grimacing, it reminded me of Pittsburgh Mike Cook's torn ACL here last week against Duke. Wright had to be carried off, so it's possible that another knee tear unfortunately is in store for the sophomore guard.
And if that's the case, this court could quickly go from being famous to infamous for Big East teams.
NEW YORK -- Deron Washington got fouled on a three-pointer 25 feet away from the basket but could only hit two out of three free throws, as St. John's leads Virginia Tech, 22-21, at halftime in the Aeropostale Holiday Festival championship game.
Finally got myself some halftime stats from the MSG crew, and it's St. John's Anthony Mason, Jr. that's leading all scorers with eight points. The Johnnies, in the meantime, are shooting 37 percent (10-for-27) from the floor, and Virginia Tech hasn't been much better at 37.5 (otherwise, the Hokies would probably be leading this game).
For VT, Dorenzo Hudson has tallied a team-high six points in the first 20 minutes of action, and A.D. Vassallo has dropped in five. But with the margin just one at halftime, winning tonight's contest is really going to come down to whichever team can make big shots in crunch time.
Back with more as we get set for the second half...
NEW YORK -- We got another barn burner...yawn...with a high school-sized crowd on hand here at the Garden, as St. John's and Virginia have combined for 31 points in the first 17 minutes of play.
Right now the scoreboard reads St. John's 16, VT 15, and Anthony Mason, Jr. is leading all scorers with six points. Deron Washington has grabbed four rebounds for the Hokies, but there's not much else to report right now with neither team putting the ball in the basket.
NEW YORK -- Through 10 minutes of play in our championship game, it's St. John's holding a slight 12-11 advantage over Virginia Tech.
Neither team has looked impressive shooting the ball from the perimeter and turnovers are certainly playing a factor in the efficiency of both offenses.
NEW YORK -- We're all set for this afternoon's Holiday Festival championship game, and we're hoping it will be a good one with Virginia Tech and St. John's battling back and forth.
After last night's close win over Marist, St. John's coach Norm Roberts is hoping that Eugene Lawrence can step up once again in crunch time and lead the Johnnies past the Hokies today.
It won't be an easy task, however, for the Red Storm, which had three double-digit scorers last night in Anthony Mason, Jr., Tomas Jasiulionis and Justin Burrell. The Hokies, after all, have two go-to players in senior Deron Washington and junior A.D. Vassallo, both of whom tallied 17 points last night in a 30-point win over an Antoine Agudio-less Hofstra team (the one we just saw fall to Marist, 73-69, in the Holiday Festival consolation game earlier this afternoon).
And while neither of the teams are expected to make the NCAA Tournament come March, it still should be interesting to see how much last night's games will affect either team. Logic would give the advantage to the Hokies with their blowout win while St. John's struggled to get past Marist, but if the Johnnies are hungry and motivated, then they'll want to win this game in front of the hometown faithful.
NEW YORK -- If there's one thing we know after the first game of tonight's Aeropostale Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, it's that Hofstra won't be repeating as championships.
That's because behind veterans Deron Washington and A.D. Vassallo, Virginia Tech dominated an Antoine Agudio-less Hofstra team that really could have used those 26.8 points that the senior had been averaging for the season.
But the nation's second leading scorer never even got to step onto the floor against the Hokies after injuring his ankle in practice on Wednesday.
"I was taking a jump shot and I just came down on my ankle the wrong way," the 6-foot-3 senior guard explained after the game. "It feels better but I am taking it day-to-day."
That was certainly a big surprise to me, who saw Agudio as one of the few reasons to go to the two-day holiday tournament just up the street from my desk at CSTV.
"It is a little different when you don't play against Antoine Agudio," Virginia Tech Seth Greenberg said in his post-game press conference. "He is such a good scorer. I thought we played good and played hard. Whoever we play tomorrow, we have to do better."
"Obviously without [him] we are a different team and we struggled to score," Hofstra coach Tom Pecora. "If we are going to play without Antoine for awhile, and we are not sure if that is the case and we will know tomorrow, we need to figure out a way to turn a negative to a positive."
For the way things looked tonight, that might be hard to do.
The game, in fact, never seemed to be in doubt for Virginia Tech, which led by as many as 30 points before leaving the building with an 84-59 victory.
"When you make shots, you look smart," Greenberg remarked on the game as a whole. "When you take the same shots and miss them, you are not that cerebral. We have lost five games and we could have easily won four or four [of them]. We are good enough to play anyone and also not good enough to lose to anyone."
That's because Greenberg has six freshman on his roster, and it's not like they're riding the pine. That's what college basketball, though, has come to these days, where teams are often starting two and sometimes three freshmen.
For Pecora, it's a similar scenario, as a young Hofstra team can only hope to get wiser and better quickly with Agudio sidelined.
"This is a learning experience for us," Pecora asserted. "They are a great bunch. They work very hard as a team in practice. I truly believe that at the end of the year we will be a good basketball team that nobody will want to play. I have to play the freshmen to get them seasoned by February to have a chance to win the conference."
And if the Pride was able to do that, it would certainly be quite a testament to Pecora, his coaching staff and ultimately his players.
Post-game Notes:
* Charles Jenkins led Hofstra with 13 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the field to go along with four assists and four rebounds. Darren Townes was the other scorer in double figures for Tom Pecora's ball club, tallying 12 after making six of his 10 attempts from the floor.
* Virginia Tech finished the game shooting 56.3 percent from the field and 37.5 from three-point range. Hofstra, meanwhile, couldn't buy a bucket from downtown, missing all five of its attempts in the second half and going just 1-for-10 on the night. The Pride registered a 34.3 shooting percentage from the floor.
* Hofstra surprisingly did outrebound the Hokies by a 43-37 margin, which included 21 offensive rebounds, something that Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg wasn't happy about.
"Twenty-one offensive rebounds is probably a good place to start," he said. "That is probably the biggest flaw [from tonight's game]. We didn't guard the ball in the second half. We were reaching and slapping. We have to get better. In our conference, you have to play better to win. It is hard to win games now."
NEW YORK -- Nothing really new here to report, but Virginia Tech has a 76-49 lead over Hofstra with less than five minutes remaining in the game. The Pride's short supply of fans are already hitting the exits here at Madison Square Garden, and our second game of the evening, which pits MAAC foe Marist against St. John's, should be coming up shortly.
Until then, A.D. Vassallo continues to make perimeter shots for Seth Greenberg's Hokies, and the lead has now grown to 30 at 79-49.
NEW YORK -- Well, our head hasn't hit the desk yet, but it soon could if Hofstra doesn't start making its shots. The Pride are still trailing by more than 20 points with roughly 10 minutes left in the second half, and it doesn't look like Tom Pecora's club is interested in making it hard on Virginia Tech tonight.
Hokies coach Seth Greenberg, at least, should be pleased with the way his team has dominated the glass and the paint so far in this game, and with the physical presence that VT displays down on the block, it continues to pose all sorts of problems for The Pride.
NEW YORK -- In what's not much of a game already, Virginia Tech is maintaining a sizable lead on Hofstra with the scoreboard reading 56-32 at the 14-minute mark in the second half.
Hofstra hasn't put up much of a fight in these first few minutes after halftime, and the Hokies just continue to pour it on The Pride, who can't buy a bucket from the perimeter tonight. Antoine Agudio, in similar fashion, has not touched the floor tonight. The nation's second leading scorer, in fact, hasn't even moved from the bench, and I'm starting to wonder why. Hopefully we'll get an update from Pecora after the game, as I'm sure it will be one of the first questions that the Hofstra coach will be asked to address by the infamous NYC media that's gathered here tonight.
NEW YORK -- We're at halftime in our first game of the annual Aeropostale Holiday Festival at Madison Square Garden, and it's been all Virginia Tech so far with the Hokies leading, 45-23, at the break.
Just got my hands on a stat sheet (the MSG staff that handles PR isn't exactly speedy when it comes to these kind of things for some reason), and the Hokies' Jeff Allen leads all scorers with 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field. The 6-foot-7 freshman, in the meantime, also leads all players with seven rebounds with VT holding a 18-11 rebounding edge over Hofstra.
For the Pride, Arminas Urbutis was the team's high scorer in the first half, dropping in seven after knocking down three of his five attempts from the floor. Aside from Urbutis, there wasn't anyone else who looked impressive for Tom Pecora's ball club, which shot only 31.3 percent compared to Virginia Tech's astounding 61.5 mark (16-for-26). Throw in 10 turnovers into the mix, too, and you get a 22-point halftime deficit. That's what the Pride will try to dig themselves out of in the second half, so with that tall order on their plate, I bid them good luck with the start of the second half.
NEW YORK -- We're three minutes and change away from halftime in our first game of the Aeropostale Holiday Festival here at Madison Square Garden, and it's Virginia Tech who holds a commanding 34-21 lead on CAA foe Hofstra.
For the Pride, though, this could be a good test in playing a team from the ACC, the conference that's been widely regarded as the best in the country for a long time.
On the court, Jeff Allen continues to be a presence for Seth Greenberg's team down low, and Hofstra coach Tom Pecora hasn't seemed to find an answer for stopping the 6-foot-7 freshman from Washington, D.C., who currently has 10 points to lead all scorers.
Malcolm Delaney, meanwhile, just stole the ball at mid court and took it in for an easy two that has the Hokies up, 38-21, with a little less than two minutes remaining. Make that nine points for Delaney.
NEW YORK -- Virginia Tech continues to roll here at Madison Square Garden in the first game of the Aeropostale Holiday Festival. Hofstra has hit a couple more shots from the perimeter, but the Hokies are continuing to prove to be too big inside for the Pride.
Malcolm Delaney is pacing VT right now at the seven-minute mark with -- by no coincidence -- seven points and it's the Hokies who have built a 15 and now 17-point lead with easy transition layups time after time down the floor.
To say Hostra plays any defense at all would be a complete lie. And my mother always told me that I was a bad liar. She's right, so I won't try...back to the game in a couple minutes.
NEW YORK -- This one is looking ugly already at the 15-minute mark, and it's been all Virginia Tech so far. Deron Washington has come out with an extra step tonight for the Hokies, who lead 14-2 right now.
Hofstra, at the other end, hasn't looked good getting into its offensive sets, and we'll see if that can change for Coach Tom Percora and the Pride. Antoine Agudio has yet to get a good look at the basket, and at 26.8 points per game, we could be seeing that scoring average drop tonight.
NEW YORK -- Greetings once again from Madison Square Garden, my second home these days with the college football season winding down and the college basketball season in full swing as conference play begins next week, where we get to watch two games for the price of one (not really actually).
But tonight we do have the honor of watching two mediocre games -- and yes, I know I've been spoiled lately with games like Texas-UCLA, Memphis-USC and Pitt-Duke -- in the annual Aeropostale Holiday Festival. I'm not complaining, though, because basketball is still basketball, and if there's a game to watch, I'm going to watch it.
Anyway, our first game of the night features ACC rep Virginia Tech, who reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year, taking on Hofstra for a chance to advance to tomorrow night's championship game.
The Hokies are coming off a heartbreaking 77-75 loss to Wake Forest last Sunday night in Winston-Salem, N.C. A.D. Vassallo, however, was one of the brighter spots for Seth Greenberg's team, tallying his first double-double of the season with 19 points and a career-high 11 rebounds. Deron Washington also recorded a double-double -- his second of the season -- in the loss with 13 points and 14 boards. And though Virginia Tech had to travel the furthest of any of the other teams (Marist vs. hometown favorite St. John's follows in our second game tonight) in the two-day tournament, the Hokies have plenty of experience playing under this roof. Last season, VT defeated Seton Hall, 80-61, in the Aeropostale Classic and also split a pair of games in Big East competition. And if there's one team I'm putting my money on (not that I bet anyway), it would be the Hokies.
Hofstra, on the other hand, is looking to defend its 2006 Holiday Festival championship after upending Saint Joseph's and St. John's on back-to-back nights last year. That's what the Pride will have to do again here if it hopes to defend its title, and fortunately for them, they have one of the country's best scorers in Antoine Agudio to do it with. The senior guard, in fact, is averaging 26.8 points per game, which only trails Niagara's Charron Fisher at 27.3 ppg. Agudio, though, does lead the country in minutes (39.8 mpg) and has 305 career three-pointers, so we could be seeing a lot of shots get launched from beyond the arc tonight. And if he starts slow, don't be surprised. Agudio, after all, averages 17.2 points in the second halves of games this season, almost as much as what VCU's Eric Mayor, the second leading scorer in the CAA, tallies per game (18.3). Don't forget about freshman guard Charles Jenkins, too, who has registered double-digit points in seven straight games after dropping in 14 against Rhode Island last Saturday. One other thing to note: The Pride are 9-2 in their last 11 games at The World's Famous Arena, including 7-1 all-time in the annual Holiday Festival.
Let's get ready for the tip.
