Photos by Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen dunks over Richmond's Francis-Cedric Martel (15). Allen finished with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Virginia Tech's Malcolm Delaney squeezes past Richmond's Justin Harper (32). Delaney scored 12 points in the victory by the Hokies.

BLACKSBURG -- Last year, a loss at Richmond was one reason the NCAA tournament selection committee deemed the Virginia Tech men's basketball team unworthy of a bid.

If the Hokies don't make the tournament again this year, a loss to Richmond will not be one of the reasons.

The Hokies avenged that loss Wednesday by cruising past the Spiders 62-48 at Cassell Coliseum.

"Last year, that game kept us out of the tournament," said Jeff Allen, who had 11 points and 12 rebounds. "We had to pay them back."

Richmond won 52-49 last year. Before Wednesday's game, Tech coach Seth Greenberg reminded his players of how the Spiders had celebrated.

"We [were] definitely determined," said Malcolm Delaney, who had 12 points. "Last year after the game, they were celebrating. We still had that memory."

The Hokies hurt themselves with the NCAA committee last year in part because they lost four games to teams below No. 100 in the Rating Percentage Index -- Penn State, Old Dominion, Richmond and North Carolina State.

This year, the Hokies (11-5) finished their nonleague schedule with just two losses (Seton Hall and Georgia) that the committee might frown upon come March.

"I don't think we did too much to help ourselves, but we still didn't really do [anything] to hurt ourselves," Delaney said. "Last year, we did a lot to hurt ourselves early in the season.

"Hopefully it's time to start helping ourselves out, get some good wins."

The Hokies stymied Richmond's Princeton-style offense. UR (9-7) shot 31.1 percent from the field.

"We had a better game plan this year," Delaney said. "By packing it in more, that eliminated a lot of the back doors they usually get."

The Spiders missed 19 of their first 21 field-goal attempts as they fell behind 24-6 with 6:37 to go in the first half.

"They were on some of the things we were trying to do, and I think maybe we weren't just persistent enough to either make an extra pass or throw the ball inside," UR coach Chris Mooney said.

Greenberg, whose team led 41-21 at halftime, watched Pittsburgh's win over Georgetown to help prepare for this game.

Georgetown also runs a Princeton offense.

"The first 30 minutes, we were about as good as we could be defensively," Greenberg said.

The Hokies shot 54.8 percent from the field in the first half against UR's matchup zone defense. They shot 38.6 percent from the field in last year's game.

Tech used a motion offense Wednesday.

"It wasn't exactly Indiana; it wasn't Bobby Knight, but it was good enough to move them around and create some mismatches," Greenberg said.

Allen had his fifth double-double of the season. He was 4-of-9 from the field, including two dunks.

He had been just 3-of-17 from the field in his previous three games.

"This was kind of like a comeback game for me," Allen said. "The past week or so, I've been doing a little extra shooting after practice."

Allen said he had been affected in recent games by family problems but had his "head clear" Wednesday.

J.T. Thompson had 10 points and eight rebounds. He also played good defense on David Gonzalvez, who had nine points, seven below his average.

The only bad note for Tech was that Greenberg hurt his hand.

With Tech up by 21 points, Terrell Bell turned the ball over, resulting in a Gonzalvez layup with 6:13 to go. Greenberg smacked his right hand on the scorers' table and spun around.

"I am not going to apply for 'Dancing with the Stars,' " he joked.

Former Blacksburg star Jarhon Giddings had no points for UR.

Richmond MP FG FT R A F PT

K. Smith 30 2-5 3-7 4 4 5 7

Harper 22 1-9 2-4 4 0 4 5

Giddings 18 0-4 0-0 3 0 2 0

Gonzalvez 35 4-14 1-2 6 2 3 9

Anderson 34 5-12 1-2 4 0 0 11

Duinker 14 4-8 0-0 0 1 1 9

Martel 24 3-4 0-0 6 2 1 7

C. Smith 2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0

Butler 21 0-4 0-0 2 1 3 0

Totals 200 19-61 7-15 30 10 19 48

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Allen 33 4-9 3-4 12 0 2 11

Davila 16 1-2 2-2 3 0 3 4

Thompson 25 4-9 2-6 8 0 0 10

Vassallo 26 2-6 2-2 6 1 4 6

Delaney 35 3-11 5-6 5 4 3 12

Bell 15 4-6 0-1 5 1 2 8

Synstad 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Hudson 10 2-3 0-0 2 0 1 5

Thorns 16 1-3 0-0 2 4 0 2

Panneton 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Vinson 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Witcher 7 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Debnam 1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 2

Diakite 16 1-1 0-0 3 0 1 2

Totals 200 23-51 14-21 48 10 17 62

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Richmond 21 27 -- 48

Virginia Tech 41 21 -- 62

3-point goals: Richmond 3-22 (Duinker 1-2, Martel 1-2, Harper 1-5, C.Smith 0-1, K.Smith 0-1, Anderson 0-2, Butler 0-3, Giddings 0-3, Gonzalvez 0-3), Virginia Tech 2-14 (Hudson 1-1, Delaney 1-5, Thorns 0-1, Allen 0-1, Bell 0-2, Vassallo 0-2, Thompson 0-2).

Turnovers: Richmond 7 (Anderson 2), Virginia Tech 16 (Delaney 5). Blocked shots: Richmond 3 (K. Smith, Harper, Giddings), Virginia Tech 7 (Diakite 3).

Steals: Richmond 9 (K. Smith 3), Virginia Tech 5 (Allen, Bell 2).

Officials: Eades, Clark, Styons.

Attendance: 9,847.