The Night the Lights Went Out in Cassell
by Neal Turnage
November 16, 2006

The Virginia Tech Hokie basketball team was literally “lights out” as it cruised to a 95-47 victory over the West Florida Argonauts.  Power glitches caused the main lights to go out twice in Cassell Coliseum, once before the game and again five minutes into the second half. 

Tom Gabbard, associate director of athletics for internal affairs, said the cause of the outages was not immediately known.  “With the type of lights we use, there is about a ten-minute cooling off period before they can be turned back on,” he said.  The in-game outage caused a nearly fifteen-minute delay in play.

Despite the 48-point margin of victory and forcing 29 turnovers, Tech head coach Seth Greenberg felt that team’s effort did not match the intensity it showed in its opener against Coppin State.

“(The game) wasn’t very inspiring,” said Greenberg. “I don’t think we defended with any purpsose.  I felt we just ran around there trying to steal the ball and get runouts.  We’re not gonna be able to do that anymore for the rest of the season.”

Senior guard Zabian Dowdell echoed his coach’s sentiments in the locker room after the game. “Our defense is definitely something we need to improve on.  We have to be able to stop people.  We’ve been able to score a lot of points but down the line we’re going to have to be able to make key stops late in the game and defense is going to be a big part of our game.”

Dowdell finished with 17 points in 28 minutes of play.  Sophomore A.D. Vassallo came off the bench to lead the Hokies with 26 points.  Vassallo went 5 of 7 from 3-point range and was a perfect 5 of 5 from the free throw line.

“My shot was one of my best attributes last year,” said Vassallo. “ It was something I wanted to improve on to stretch the defenses and open it up for the guys like Jamon (Gordon) and Zabe to penetrate down the lane.  The improvement just came from a lot of shooting and practicing my stroke.  Mentally I feel more free out there.  I feel like I can carry that to every game.”

Junior forward Lucas Evangelista led the Argos with 11 points while senior forward Marcus Grant pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Next up the Hokies travel to Orlando, Fla. to compete in the Old Spice Classic on Nov. 23.  The tournament, played at the Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex, will feature 12 games between eight teams and will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPNU. West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Arkansas, Minnesota, Southern Illinois, Montana, Marist and Western Michigan will all compete in the newly found tournament.

Quick Notes:

• Hokie freshman Nigel Munson missed the game to attend an evening class. “That was a decision I made,” said Greenberg. “My most important thing for these guys is to make sure that they’re successful academically and in position by the end to graduate.  He was sick last week and missed class.  I thought it was more important for him to be in class today than to play against West Florida.”
  
  
• The game was considered an exhibition for West Florida.  The Argos’ season officially begins Nov. 17 against Puerto Rico-Mayaguez in Winter Park, Fla.