Dowdell was so happy he clapped as he sat by himself after a postgame interview. The Virginia Tech men's basketball team pulled off another dramatic ACC win, downing North Carolina State 72-71 on Wednesday.

Last weekend, Tech beat Clemson for its first ACC win on a Carlos Dixon steal and dunk with 6.9 seconds left. On Wednesday, Tech (9-6, 2-2) won on center Coleman Collins' 10-foot jumper with 12.9 seconds left.

"That's the shot you shoot when you're 5 years old on the playground [going], 'Five, four, three, two, loses the ball, gets it back, puts it up,'" said Collins, who scored 20 points. "This is the culmination of a lot of hard work for everyone."

Just as they had to survive a last-second Clemson miss, the Hokies had to survive a late State attempt. Jamon Gordon blocked a jump shot by State swingman Julius Hodge, the 2003-04 ACC player of the year, with two seconds to go.

Tech erased a double-digit deficit not once, but twice in the second half.

"That shows something about our team, the way we were able to come back and fight hard," said Dowdell, who had 20 points.

"To have that competitive spirit and not to quit reveals the character that we're starting to develop," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said.

Picked next-to-last in the ACC's preseason media poll, Tech in its debut ACC season has already matched the number of league wins it got in its first Big East season (2000-01).

"The whole off-season, guys [said:] 'Virginia Tech, messing up the schedule,'" Collins said. "People were like, 'Well, at least we got somebody we could beat.' The general feeling around the league was that we were going to bring down the quality of play. These last two games, we showed a lot of people that we're capable of giving everybody a game.

"Let's not kid ourselves. ... [People said:] 'This is a football move; Miami and Virginia Tech, great football schools.' ... We didn't expect anyone to expect anything from us, but we expect more of ourselves."

It took Tech until the penultimate game of its second Big East season to get a second straight conference win, but Tech has already accomplished that feat just four games into its inaugural ACC season.

"It shows everyone in the conference that we're not a pushover," said Dixon, who had 18 points.

Down 45-32 with 19:37 left, Tech went on a 22-9 run to tie the score at 54 with 11:54 to go.

Jordan Collins made two foul shots to give State (11-6, 1-3) a 58-56 lead with 9:54 to go. Hodge, who had 23 points and 10 rebounds, scored the next nine points to build a 67-56 lead with 7:28 to go.

"We were up 11 points with seven minutes left. All we had to do is finish and we didn't do that," Hodge said.

Collins, who had 10 of Tech's final 12 points, hit a jumper to cut the deficit to 69-66 with 3:29 to go. After a steal by Marquie Cooke, Dixon sank two foul shots to cut the lead to 69-68. After two Collins foul shots, Hodge made a layup to give State a 71-70 lead with 33 seconds left.

Collins then scored the winning basket.

"I just had confidence in that shot," he said. "It was my turn to shoulder the load today and I stepped up."

Hodge scored his team's final 13 points, but Gordon blocked the shot that would have won the game.

"I should've made that shot," Hodge said.

"I knew he was going to shoot it," Gordon said. "I knew what moves he was going to do, so I just tried to anticipate him shooting instead of jumping early ... I just waited for him to shoot, then I just jumped as high as I could and I got a block."N.C. STATE MP FG FT R A F PTEvtimov 35 0-2 3-6 3 3 3 3Hodge 39 8-19 6-10 12 4 4 23Brackman 31 4-6 3-4 10 0 3 13Bennerman 20 2-4 0-0 0 1 4 4Astur 36 2-7 0-0 3 2 1 6Grant 25 6-11 1-4 4 2 3 14Collins 12 2-2 2-2 2 0 3 6Simmons 2 1-2 0-0 1 0 2 2Team - - 2 Totals: 200 25-53 15-26 37 12 23 71VA TECH MP FG FT R A F PTDixon 27 4-8 8-8 4 3 4 18Collins 38 5-11 10-10 9 1 1 20Dowdell 35 8-16 0-1 4 4 1 20Washington 13 1-4 0-2 1 0 4 2Gordon 37 4-9 0-0 3 2 2 9Witherspoon 12 0-3 0-0 2 0 2 0Krabbendam 2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0Cooke 16 1-2 1-3 2 2 4 3King 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0Tucker 19 0-0 0-0 0 0 3 0Team - - 3 1 Totals: 200 23-54 19-24 28 12 22 72Rebounds include team rebounds

Score by periods:

N.C. State41-30--71

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Virginia Tech32-40--72

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Three-point goals - State 6-15 (Hodge 1-2, Brackman 2-3, Bennerman 0-2, Astur 2-6, Grant 1-2), Tech 7-13 (Dixon 2-5, Dowdell 4-7, Gordon 1-1).

Turnovers - State 17 (Hodge 6), Tech 10 (Collins 3)

Blocked shots - State 3 (Brackman 2), Tech 6 (Gordon 2)

Steals - State 6 (Hodge, Bennerman 2), Tech 6 (Dixon, Gordon 2)

Officials - Gordon, Maxwell, Gladden

Attendance - 9,847