Photo by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech forward J.T. Thompson dunks over Georgia Tech during Saturday's game. Thompson scored 13 points in the victory.

Related

• Aaron McFarling: Tough early slate begins to pay dividends

Next game

• Boston College at Virginia Tech
• Tuesday @ 7 p.m.
• ESPNU

BLACKSBURG -- A team that began the week in a slump ended it with a second straight win.

The Virginia Tech men's basketball team clinched its fourth winning season in five years by beating Georgia Tech 92-84 on Saturday at Cassell Coliseum.

The Hokies (16-11, 7-6 ACC) began the week on a three-game losing streak. But they followed Wednesday's win at Maryland by leading the entire second half Saturday.

Junior guard A.D. Vassallo, who hurt the Yellow Jackets (11-14, 4-7) with a season-high 27 points, said the Hokies are now playing with more intensity.

"We got a little away from it when we started getting a little success," said Vassallo, who scored his 1,000th career point Saturday. "We kind of got distracted -- 'Well, we're winning games, so it's easy for us to win.' And we kind of got backed down three times in a row.

"We got back ... to working hard."

Vassallo addressed his teammates in the locker room last Saturday after their 92-53 loss at North Carolina.

Deron Washington said Vassallo told the team, "We've got to find out who we are. We've got to get back to where we [were]."

The Hokies said they answered with a better week of practices.

"We've been competing a whole lot more in practice, which has been carrying on to the court," said Washington, who had 10 points and nine rebounds. "We [had been] taking things for granted because it looked like things were coming easy. That's being a young team that's maturing."

Point guard Malcolm Delaney had criticized his teammates to the media after the UNC loss, saying they "gave up" in that game and needed a better attitude.

"Everybody responded," said Delaney, who had 16 points. "They knew what I was talking about because I tell them the same stuff on the court and off the court."

Freshman forward J.T. Thompson, who missed the Maryland game with a sprained left ankle, had 13 points and eight rebounds off the bench.

Thompson scored in double figures for the sixth time in his last eight games. He has learned over this stretch how to make an impact.

"I'm always guarded by a big man," he said. "I decided to try to use my quickness, try to sprint down the floor, beat them down there and get some early post-ups."

The Yellow Jackets and Hokies combined for 60 fouls and 83 free throws. Virginia Tech was 36-of-49 from the line, including 18-of-24 in the first half.

"The fouls in the first half hurt us," Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt said. "Our 'bigs' were slapping down too much. That's how they got back in the game."

The Hokies fell behind 12-2 but went on a 12-0 run to grab a 26-22 lead with 6:54 to go in the first half. Vassallo scored all 13 of his first-half points in the final 10:03 of the half.

Virginia Tech scored eight straight points to build a 78-67 cushion with 4:53 to go.

The Hokies had nine turnovers in the first half but just one in the second half, when they shot 51.7 percent from the field.

"As we settled into the game and moved them a little bit, I thought our offense got to be at least as tough as their defense," Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "[At] Carolina, we didn't compete at all on offense. We threw one pass, drove it baseline and took a bad shot. Today, they wanted to force us baseline; we actually made a second and third pass."

Georgia Tech backup point guard Matt Causey, who had 30 points in the Yellow Jackets' win over the Hokies last month, had just two points Saturday. But freshman Maurice Miller became the latest point guard to have a surprisingly good game against the Hokies, scoring a career-high 29 points.

Georgia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Bell 26 1-3 4-4 3 2 4 6

Lawal 21 1-5 2-4 3 1 3 4

Smith 21 5-6 5-7 2 0 4 15

Miller 31 7-13 13-14 4 5 1 29

Morrow 25 6-10 2-3 3 2 4 18

Clinch 17 1-7 0-0 0 1 2 2

Causey 10 0-0 2-2 2 2 3 2

Storrs 12 0-1 0-0 1 1 5 0

Sheehan 5 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Peacock 9 1-2 0-0 0 0 3 2

Aminu 23 3-7 0-0 6 0 5 6

Totals 200 25-54 28-34 27 14 34 84

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Allen 21 2-9 4-4 3 1 4 9

Washington 33 2-4 6-10 9 2 5 10

Witcher 16 4-6 0-0 4 0 3 8

Vassallo 38 8-14 10-11 5 2 1 27

Delaney 28 1-4 13-18 4 3 3 16

Bell 4 1-1 0-0 1 0 2 2

Hudson 11 1-3 0-0 0 0 1 2

Thorns 17 1-5 0-0 2 3 1 3

Vinson 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Thompson 25 5-9 3-6 8 0 3 13

Diakite 6 1-2 0-0 3 0 3 2

Totals 200 26-57 36-49 42 11 26 92

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Georgia Tech 38 46 -- 84

Virginia Tech 42 50 -- 92

3-point goals: GT 6-20 (Bell 0-1, Miller 2-6, Morrow 4-8, Clinch 0-3, Storrs 0-1, Peacock 0-1), VT 4-12 (Allen 1-3, Vassallo 1-4, Delaney 1-3, Hudson 0-1, Thorns 1-1).

Turnovers: GT 13 (Lawal 3, Causey 3), VT 10 (Washington 3).

Blocked shots: GT 6 (Aminu 4), VT 2 (Thompson 1, Diakite 1).

Steals: GT 5 (Bell 2), VT 6 (Washington 3).

Officials: Luckie, Hess, Eades.

Attendance: 9,847.