ATLANTA -- Look who's alone in first place in the ACC.

The Virginia Tech men's basketball team shot 59.5 percent from the field and beat Georgia Tech 73-65 on Sunday at Alexander Memorial Coliseum.

The No. 24 Hokies (16-5 overall) moved into sole possession of first place at 6-1.

Boston College, which had been alone in first, lost at Duke on Sunday to fall to 6-2 in ACC play. North Carolina, which had been tied for second with the Hokies, remained at 5-1.

"I would've never imagined us being in first place at this point in the season," said guard Zabian Dowdell, who had 23 points. "Things have been going our way."

The Hokies are 7-1 this month.

"We know how to finish games now," center Coleman Collins said. "We've got a quality team. We felt like that all along, even when we were going through our ... doldrums early on in the season."

The team that lost at Marshall on Dec. 30 improved to 3-1 in ACC road games this month, with the lone blemish coming at Florida State.

The Hokies handed Georgia Tech (13-7, 2-5) its first home loss of the season in 12 games. They previously won at Duke and Miami.

"You just have to learn from your mistakes," Dowdell said. "We had two road games where we didn't come out with the energy that we needed to come out with. The games we won, we came out with great energy, we came out aggressive, we came out ready to play."

Hokies coach Seth Greenberg said this is a different team than the one that lost at Marshall.

"Marshall, we just came off our winter break and we came back and we took bad shots off of one pass," Greenberg said. "We didn't defend with a purpose. ... We realized that, 'You know what? If you play that way, you're not going to win.'

"Hopefully you learn from your bad experiences. ... We're a better team right now. We have better trust. We have more guys contributing. We have a better feel for how we have to play."

Deron Washington didn't start Sunday because he said he was late for something; he declined to be more specific. Television commentators Dan Bonner and Dan Thulin, calling the game for Fox Sports Net, said Washington was late for a class.

A.D. Vassallo started at small forward in Washington's place and scored 19 points. He also tied his career high with 10 rebounds.

"I got open shots," said Vassallo, who had three |3-pointers. "I was just trying to attack, make sure they were on their heels."

Collins, from the Atlanta suburb of Stone Mountain, had 13 points and seven rebounds. He was particularly motivated to win at Georgia Tech.

"I've been coming here since I was 7, 8 years old," Collins said. "I can tell you all the players that's been here. This was the team that didn't recruit me coming out of high school.

"Every time I come out here, I want to come out with a win. When I woke up this morning, I woke up to win."

Dowdell had eight assists and just one turnover. Backcourt mate Jamon Gordon had four points, seven assists and three turnovers.

"Their veteran guards controlled the tempo," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. "Those two guys came up with ... a lot of great plays to create easy scores for them."

The Yellow Jackets, who trailed the entire second half, shot 36.6 percent from the field.

Anthony Morrow and Mouhammad Faye combined for 35 points for the Yellow Jackets.

But the Hokies did a good job defensively on two of the top freshmen in the ACC, forward Thaddeus Young and point guard Javaris Crittenton. Crittenton had 12 points but was 5-of-19 from the field. Young, who entered the game averaging 14.9 points, managed only six and was 2-of-10 from the field.

"We tried to disrupt their game," Vassallo said. "We tried to mess with Young a little bit, trap him sometimes, tried to make him think he was going to get trapped every time.

"With Crittenton, we just tried to keep him in front, make him make harder plays than he can do."

Collins held center Ra'Sean Dickey, who was averaging 8.9 points, without a point.

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Witcher 14 2-3 1-1 3 0 1 5

Collins 34 5-6 3-4 7 2 3 13

Vassallo 34 7-9 2-3 10 1 1 19

Dowdell 35 7-13 8-8 3 8 2 23

Gordon 30 1-4 2-4 5 7 4 4

Munson 4 0-2 0-0 1 0 1 0

Washington 28 2-4 3-5 2 1 2 7

Sailes 7 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Diakite 14 1-1 0-0 2 0 1 2

Team 2

Totals 200 25-42 19-25 35 19 16 73

Georgia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Smith 30 2-6 1-2 4 2 5 5

Young 27 2-10 1-2 5 1 1 6

Dickey 19 0-3 0-0 3 0 2 0

Crittenton 33 5-19 0-1 4 4 1 12

Faye 27 7-13 2-3 9 1 2 17

West 16 2-3 0-1 2 2 2 4

Morrow 25 7-11 1-2 1 0 5 18

Peacock 23 1-6 1-2 4 0 4 3

Team 1

Totals 200 26-71 6-13 3 10 22 65

Virginia Tech 38 35 -- 73

Georgia Tech 30 35 -- 65

3-point goals: VT 4-13 (Vassallo 3-5, Dowdell 1-3, Gordon 0-3, Munson 0-2), GT 7-22 (Smith 0-1, Young 1-4, Dickey 0-1, Crittenton 2-4, Faye 1-3, West 0-1, Morrow 3-6, Peacock 0-2).

Turnovers: VT 16 (Gordon 3), GT 11 (Smith 2, Young 2, Dickey 2, West 2).

Blocked shots: VT 4 (Collins 1, Gordon 1, Sailes 1, Diakite 1), GT 2 (Smith 1, Peacock 1).

Steals: VT 4 (Dowdell 2), GT 9 (Crittenton 4).

Technical fouls: Gordon.

Officials: Kitts, Greenwood, Driscoll.

Attendance: 9,191.