Mykhael Lattimore's tip-in at the buzzer lifted
Virginia Tech to a 61-59 victory over Western Carolina on Nov.
25 at Blacksburg.
It was fitting that a rebound would decide the outcome because
the Hokies dominated the boards 39-23.
Bryant Matthews led VPI with 22 points and eight rebounds. Zabian
Dowdell added 14 points.
Kevin Martin paced the Catamounts with 24 points and six boards.
David Berghoefer and Corey Muirhead had 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Dowdell's jumper gave Tech a 59-57 edge with 1:04 on the clock,
and the Hokies regained possession after a Western miss.
Terrence Woodyard's steal led to a pair of free throws by Martin
for a 59-59 tie with seven seconds left.
The Cats had a 36-33 edge when Martin hit three free throws
at the 12:18 mark.
Tech never trailed after Matthews made two foul shots giving
his team a 37-36 advantage with 11:52 on the clock.
The Hokies extended the margin to 53-45 on a Markus Sailes three-pointer
with 6:55 to play.
Western led throughout the first half except for two brief periods
when VPI went up by one. Nine consecutive points put the Cats
in front 13-5 on an Alex Osipovitch jumper with 8:29 to play
in the half.
The Hokies responded with nine straight points of their own
to lead 14-13 on Dowdell's jumper at the 5:49 mark.
Berghoefer's layup seven seconds later gave WCU the lead for
the rest of the half. The margin was 27-22 at intermission.
The Hokies needed their rebounding dominance because they made
just 34.6 percent of their field goal tries compared to 46.3
percent by WCU.
VPI also committed two more turnovers (21-19) than the Cats.
Completing the WCU scoring were Woodyard with six, Lunzaya Nlandu
with four and Osipovitch and Kyle Greathouse with two apiece.
Western's Jared Outing and VPI's Sailes both came up with three
assists.
