Photos by Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times

Cheick Diakite (34) of Virginia Tech takes an elbow to the head from Jean Cajou of Mount St. Mary's while chasing a loose ball during the first half of Monday night's game in Blacksburg.

Malcolm Delaney of Virginia Tech is fouled as he drives toward the basket against Jean Cajou (left) and Jeremy Goode (right) of Mount St. Mary's. Delaney made critical free throws in the final minutes.

BLACKSBURG -- It's a good thing the Virginia Tech men's basketball game only aired regionally Monday, because the Hokies aren't yet fit for national television consumption.

The Hokies struggled to beat a team from a less prestigious conference for the second straight game, rallying to defeat Mount St. Mary's 62-57 at Cassell Coliseum.

Tech coach Seth Greenberg, whose team will board a flight today to Puerto Rico, bent over and exhaled when the game ended. His team trailed for most of the second half.

"It would've been tough waking up at 3 o'clock in the morning to go to Puerto Rico, losing that game," he said. "We've got to get better."

The Mountaineers (1-1), who made the 2008 NCAA tournament, led 52-46 with 2:20 to go.

"In March, we'll be sitting there going, 'We had an NCAA tournament team on the road on the ropes, and we might've let them off the hook,' " Mountaineers coach Milan Brown said.

A.D. Vassallo, who had 15 points, buried a 3-pointer to give Tech (2-0) its first lead of the second half at 53-52 with 1:32 to go.

"I finally had a good shot," Vassallo said.

"I didn't even watch it because I knew he was going to make it," Brown said.

After being fouled on a 3-point attempt, Malcolm Delaney sank three free throws to give Tech the lead for good at 56-54 with 52 seconds to go. Delaney had 18 points, including 13 of his team's final 16 points. Ten of his final 13 points came on free throws.

"I knew down the stretch I needed to take some big shots for the team to win, and that was one of those shots," Delaney said of the 3-point attempt. "I know how to draw contact on the 3.

"I knew if it came down in the clutch, I had to hit [free throws]. ... I knew I had to put the game away."

The Hokies, who fended off Gardner-Webb 65-62 on Friday, won despite shooting 33.3 percent from the field.

"We did a lot of stupid mistakes where we tried to go for the home run on the first pass instead of getting into our offense," Delaney said.

Tech committed 20 turnovers. Greenberg swore at Cheick Diakite after one turnover and kicked the scorers' table after another. Vassallo slammed the ball to the floor after another.

"We made silly turnovers," Greenberg said.

Greenberg wants more offense from the off-guard and center positions.

"We've got two positions that aren't producing the way they need to," he said.

Starting off-guard Dorenzo Hudson, backup wing Terrell Bell and reserve point guard Hank Thorns again struggled. They were a combined 0-of-9 from the field and had a total of two points.

"For us to be a good team, we need Bell, Thorns and Hudson to play well," Greenberg said.

Freshman backup Victor Davila showed that he might be the answer at center. He had eight points and six rebounds off the bench.

"We saw Victor Davila grow up a little bit before our eyes," Greenberg said.

Down 43-35 with 9:12 left, the Hokies went on an 11-3 run to tie the score at 46 with 4:31 left. Jeff Allen had seven points in the run. He finished with 13 points and nine rebounds.

"Down the stretch, Jeff imposed his energy on the game," Greenberg said.

Jean Cajou had 19 points for the Mount.

Mt. St. Mary's MP FG FT R A F PT

Beidler 30 1-8 0-0 3 0 4 2

Sa. Atupem 16 1-4 0-0 5 1 3 2

Mitchell 25 4-5 1-2 10 2 5 9

Cajou 34 6-15 5-5 4 3 2 19

Goode 37 4-15 2-3 3 3 3 11

Sh. Atupem 28 4-8 1-3 3 0 3 9

Holland 20 1-4 0-0 1 1 0 3

Trice 4 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0

Jackson 6 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 2

Totals 200 22-60 9-13 33 11 21 57

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Allen 28 4-9 4-4 9 2 4 13

Vassallo 37 5-10 2-2 6 2 1 15

Diakite 11 1-2 1-2 3 0 1 3

Hudson 16 0-3 2-2 1 1 1 2

Delaney 29 2-5 13-15 2 2 3 18

Bell 24 0-3 0-0 5 1 1 0

Thorns 20 0-3 0-0 0 1 3 0

Davila 18 2-6 4-6 6 0 1 8

Vinson 2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Witcher 15 1-3 1-1 2 0 0 3

Totals 200 15-45 27-32 36 9 15 62

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Mount St. Mary's 24 33 -- 57

Virginia Tech 23 39 -- 62

3-point goals: Mount St. Mary's, Md. 4-18 (Cajou 2-8, Holland 1-3, Goode 1-3, Beidler 0-4), Virginia Tech 5-14 (Vassallo 3-6, Allen 1-2, Delaney 1-3, Thorns 0-1, Bell 0-2).

Turnovers: Mount St. Mary's, Md. 16 (Beidler 4, Mitchell 4), Virginia Tech 20 (Allen 4, Vassallo 4).

Blocked shots: Mount St. Mary's, Md. 0, Virginia Tech 7 (Vassallo 2, Bell 2).

Steals: Mount St. Mary's, Md. 9 (Mitchell 2, Cajou 2), Virginia Tech 7 (Allen 3, Delaney 3).

Officials: Ayers, Hull, Dorsey.

Attendance: 9,847.