Hokies And Eagles Advance To Nit Final

NIT

The Virginia Tech Hokies will become a new member of the Atlantic Ten Conference next season, and it appears they plan to do so with a nice little addition to their resume.

The Hokies (24-10) advanced to Wednesday night’s NIT championship game against Marquette and established a school record for most victories in a season by handling Canisius, 71-59, in the first game of Monday night’s semifinal doubleheader at Madison Square Garden.

Virginia’s win raised Tech’s alltime NIT record to a 16-5. The Hokies last won the NIT title in 1973 with an overtime victory over Notre Dame.

From the outset, Tech seemed intent on making sure this contest was free of stress, using burly Shawn Smith and Travis Jackson to pound the backboards and guard Damon Watlington to terrorize the Golden Griffins (21-13) from long range.

“I tried to tell myself it was just another ball game, that there was no reason to be nervous,” said Watlington, who shot 8 for 10 and scored 20 points in his first game ever at the Garden.

Marquette 87, Penn State 79

In Monday’s second game, Anthony Pieper scored a career-high 32 points and freshman Aaron Hutchins continued his late-season heroics with 20 as the Golden Eagles earned the right to advance.

Marquette struggled through a rough first half, going 10 minutes with just one field goal in 14 attempts, and the Nittany Lions (20-11) led 36-20 with 2:59 left in the half.

The Golden Eagles scored the last eight points of the half, a run started with Hutchins’ first two points of the game, and opened the second half with a 20-4 run with Pieper, a sophomore guard, and Hutchins scoring all the points.