SHAO CUI The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen goes in for a dunk during Friday's game.

BLACKSBURG -- Last November, the Gardner-Webb men's basketball team opened eyes around the nation by pulling off a shocking 16-point win at Kentucky.

The Bulldogs came close to pulling off another upset Friday.

Virginia Tech fended off the Bulldogs 65-62 to win its season opener at Cassell Coliseum.

Gardner-Webb coach Rick Scruggs was hoping for an upset, especially after one of the referees informed him that fellow Big South member VMI had knocked off Kentucky.

"I was thinking, 'Well maybe it'll be our night again this year too,' " Scruggs said.

Gardner-Webb -- a Big South newcomer which formerly belonged to the Atlantic Sun -- made the game much closer than the Hokies would have preferred.

"I really don't want to get caught up in that stuff no more," said Tech small forward A.D. Vassallo, who had 19 points. "This is my fourth year; I want to try and enjoy blowing people out.

"Hopefully, [it will] open guys' eyes and [let them] know that they've got to execute a little bit better."

Down 56-38 with 11:34 left, the visitors from Boiling Springs, N.C., went on a 13-3 run to cut the deficit to 59-51 with 7:25 to go.

Trailing 63-53 with 5:34 to go, the Bulldogs cut the lead to 63-62 with 24.3 seconds left. Tech had three turnovers in that span -- two by backup point guard Hank Thorns and one by new starting off-guard Dorenzo Hudson.

"Stupid turnovers. Careless turnovers," said coach Seth Greenberg, who had raised his hands to his head after one of the turnovers.

Malcolm Delaney (15 points) sank two free throws to extend the lead to 65-62.

Grayson Flittner, who had 21 points and five 3-pointers for the Bulldogs, missed a 3-pointer with 12 seconds to go. Tech reserve Terrell Bell blocked another 3-point attempt by Flittner with five seconds left.

Delaney missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Aaron Linn's 3-point attempt at the buzzer went off the front of the rim.

The Bulldogs went to a zone defense in the second half, taking away Tech's transition game.

"They bothered everybody's shot," Vassallo said.

Tech used a smaller lineup in the second half to try to effectively guard the Bulldogs. But Greenberg said the Hokies missed J.T. Thompson, who played power forward when Tech went to its small lineup last season. Thompson underwent hernia surgery Friday and will be out 4-6 weeks.

"We've only practiced with that [new] small lineup for one day, and that killed our zone offense," Greenberg said. "Zone offense, I thought we were very inept, and that's my fault. I probably should've just done something very, very simple when we lost J.T."

Jeff Allen had 19 points and nine rebounds for the Hokies.

Tech missed the production of Deron Washington, now playing in Israel. Hudson, Bell and Thorns each had just two points and were a combined 3-of-17 from the field.

Gardner-Webb MP FG FT R A F PT

Henley 37 2-3 0-0 10 4 4 4

MacMillan 36 6-13 0-1 9 0 2 12

Flittner 40 8-20 0-0 8 3 2 21

Linn 32 4-11 5-5 6 3 4 13

Siddle 20 0-6 0-0 4 4 0 0

Silver 20 4-10 1-3 3 1 1 12

Maden 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Dovonou 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 0

Hinson III 3 0-1 0-0 2 0 0 0

Moore 8 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 0

Totals 200 24-66 6-9 44 16 16 62

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Allen 32 7-9 4-6 9 1 2 19

Vassallo 39 7-16 2-2 6 6 1 19

Diakite 13 2-4 0-0 2 0 1 4

Hudson 31 1-7 0-0 2 1 1 2

Delaney 28 4-14 4-5 6 4 3 15

Bell 16 1-5 0-0 2 1 4 2

Thorns 27 1-5 0-0 7 2 0 2

DaVila 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Witcher 12 1-2 0-0 2 0 1 2

Totals 200 24-62 10-13 38 15 14 65

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Gardner-Webb 26 36 -- 62

Virginia Tech 40 25 -- 65

3-point goals: Gardner Webb 8-26 (Flittner 5-14, Linn 0-3, Siddle 0-3, Silver 3-6); Virginia Tech 7-26 (Allen 1-1, Vassallo 3-10, Hudson 0-3, Delaney 3-10, Bell 0-1, Thorns 0-1.

Turnovers: Gardner-Webb 18 (Flittner 6); Virginia Tech 15 (Hudson 5).

Blocked shots: Gardner-Webb 2 (Henley 1); Virginia Tech 7 (Vassallo 2).

Steals: Gardner-Webb 6 (MacMillian 3); Virginia Tech (Allen 2).

Officials: Bryan Kersey, Jamie Luckie, Dan Stryffeler.

Attendance: 9,847