Buccaneers no match for Hokies

Virginia Tech 79, Charleston Southern 49

Blacksburg, Va. — Charleston Southern ventured into the land of the ACC for their final non-conference game of the season on Monday night.

The Buccaneers, coming off their highest scoring game of the season on Saturday when they scored 115 points, posted their lowest scoring output of the season against the bigger, stronger Hokies.

Virginia Tech scored the game's first 16 points and never trailed, improving to 9-6 with a 79-49 victory over the visiting Buccaneers.

Charleston Southern falls to 6-9 on the season and opens Big South Conference play on Saturday when the Bucsy host VMI.

Freshman forward Omar Carter was CSU's only double-digit scorer, finishing with 18 points. Carter scored CSU's first 11 points in the game.

Guard A.D. Vassallo led all scorers, pacing the Hokies with 21 points. Jeff Allen added 10 points and 10 rebounds and Deron Washington scored 10.

"We were simply overwhelmed by their size and athletic ability," said CSU head coach Barclay Radebaugh. "I thought we played hard, with great effort. It was a just a case of being overmatched by a bigger, stronger team.

"We turned the ball over too many times and we missed some easy shots. But, despite all of their layups, I thought we did a tremendous job with our half-court defense. It was one of our better efforts defensively in a long time and that was great to see."

CSU opened the game by missing its first eight shots and committing five turnovers, failing to score until the 12:30 mark of the first half. From that point on, the Buccaneers matched the Hokies in points, trailing at the half, 40-24.

The Buccaneers managed a brief rally in the second half, pulling to 48-35 with 14:30 remaining, but Virginia Tech answered with a 19-4 run to take a 67-39 lead with six minutes to play.

CSU finished the game with 23 turnovers, shooting 32 percent from the field for the game.

3-Point — CSU 8-25 (Warren 2-7, Bailey 0-1, Moore 1-5, Goods 1-1, Johnson 2-3, Duvall 0-1, Carter 2-7); VT 5-24 (Allen 0-1, Vassallo 3-10, Washington 0-2, Delaney 0-2, Bell 0-1, Hudson 0-3, Amalfe 0-1, Thorns 2-4). Steals — CSU 3 (Outen, Duvall, Carter); VT 12 (Allen, Witcher, Washington, Bell, Thompson 2). Blks — CSU 4 (Knysas, Bailey, Goods, Carter); VT 6 (Diakite 4). Turnovers — CSU 23 (Bailey 8); VT 10 (Allen, Vassallo, Hudson 2). A — 9,847.