MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg (left) and Duquesne coach Ron Everhart — who played basketball for the Hokies in the 1980s, speak after Tech beat the Dukes in double overtime on Wednesday.

BLACKSBURG -- A.D. Vassallo exhaled, clapped his hands and smiled in the waning seconds, confident that his team had finally put away Duquesne.

Vassallo scored a career-high 33 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to help the Virginia Tech men's basketball team beat Duquesne 116-108 in double overtime Wednesday in the first round of the NIT.

"All I can say is, 'Wow!'" Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "I've been doing this 32 years and I've never played in a game like that."

The Hokies (19-14) will host Baylor in the second round at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Vassallo passed Bob Ayersman, Zabian Dowdell and Tech great Allan Bristow for fifth place on the Tech career scoring list. The senior forward now has 1,810 points, six more than Bristow.

"I want to win a championship," Vassallo said. "I couldn't get an ACC one, not an NCAA. I'm going for the NIT now. All I'm trying to do is just play as many games as I can as a Hokie."

Tech led 66-53 with 7:01 to go in regulation, but Duquesne (21-13) went on a 17-4 run that included three 3-pointers to tie the score at 70.

"We just weren't smart," Greenberg said. "We didn't manage the clock."

In a 79-76 loss to North Carolina last week in the ACC Tournament, Vassallo missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer.

But this time, he made a jumper in the lane with 13.4 seconds left in regulation to tie the score at 78. Duquesne's Eric Evans missed a layup with one second to go.

"I was just trying to make sure that I didn't let my team down," Vassallo said.

Tech led 92-86 with 48.7 seconds left in the first overtime. After Evans made a 3-pointer, Malcolm Delaney missed two free throws. Aaron Jackson sank a 3-pointer to tie the score at 92 with 21.8 seconds left.

J.T. Thompson scored on a putback to give Tech the lead with 10.1 seconds left, but Jackson made a layup to make it 94-all with 1.7 seconds left.

Jackson scored the first basket of the second overtime, but Tech went on a 10-1 run to build a 104-97 cushion with 2:17 to go. Vassallo had two 3s in the run. Dorenzo Hudson stole the ball and passed to Thompson for a fast-break jam to cap the run.

"We had great resiliency," Greenberg said.

Jackson had six points at halftime but finished with 46, the most by a Duquesne player since 1978. The All-Atlantic 10 guard tied Furman's Darrell Floyd for the second-most points ever by an opposing player in a Tech game.

It was the third-most points ever scored at Cassell Coliseum by any player, Hokie or foe.

"I was lucky to have a four-point game," said Duquesne coach Ron Everhart, a former Hokie guard.

Hudson, who guarded Jackson, said he had "tons of moves."

"Me and him kind of exchanged words in the beginning of the game," Jackson said. "He basically said that he had the scouting report on me, he knew exactly what I was going to do.

"Some loose balls came to me, I knocked down open 3s and from right there just got rolling."

Jackson had eight 3-pointers, the most Tech has ever allowed to an opposing player. The Dukes were 17-of-30 from 3-point range (56.7 percent), the most 3-pointers ever surrendered by Tech.

Everhart, who played on three NIT teams and an NCAA tournament team, coached at Cassell for the first time since his Northeastern team lost at Tech in 2001.

"It's always tough to come back and coach where you played," he said. "To stand there and look up at the banners that you were a part of, ... that means something."

The game was played in front of 5,878 loud fans. Greenberg and some Tech boosters paid for 3,000 tickets and gave them to students.

"This is probably the best place I've ever played at," Jackson said. "I couldn't hear myself think."

It was Tech's first double-overtime game since the 2000-01 season.

The 116 points were the most scored by Tech since a 144-133, double-overtime win over Southern Mississippi in February 1988. The 108 points were the most Tech has allowed since a 117-97 loss at Florida State in 1989.

The Hokies shot 59.4 percent from the field. It was the first time this season that five Hokies scored in double figures.

Thompson had a career-high 21 points, while Hudson had a career-high 15. Jeff Allen had 23 points -- his first game with at least 20 points since Feb. 8 -- and 10 rebounds. Delaney had nine assists and 20 points.

Duquesne MP FG FT R A F PT

Saunders 46 1-5 2-4 5 2 2 5

Jackson 45 15-25 8-9 5 4 5 46

Duty 32 4-6 0-0 3 1 2 11

Bolding 45 6-11 5-7 5 2 3 18

Clark 31 1-4 1-2 3 0 5 4

Robinson 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 0

Evans 29 7-15 2-2 3 2 3 19

Patterson 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Milovic 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Monteiro 20 2-5 1-2 5 1 3 5

Lewinson 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 250 36-71 19-26 30 12 26 108

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Allen 44 9-13 5-8 10 3 3 23

Thompson 41 9-12 3-4 4 1 3 21

Vassallo 47 10-19 10-10 12 5 2 33

Hudson 42 5-9 3-4 4 1 5 15

Delaney 48 3-9 12-14 3 9 1 20

Bell 16 1-1 0-0 1 1 0 2

Thorns 12 1-1 0-0 0 2 2 2

Witcher 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Diakite 0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 250 38-64 33-40 37 22 16 116

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Score by periods:

Duquesne 26 52 16 14-- 108

Virginia Tech 34 44 16 22-- 116

3-point goals: Duquesne 17-30 (Jackson 8-13, Duty 3-4, Evans 3-5, Saunders 1-2, Bolding 1-2, Clark 1-3, Monteiro 0-1), Tech 7-17 (Vassallo 3-9, Hudson 2-3, Delaney 2-5).

Turnovers: Duquesne 13 (Jackson 6), Tech 10 (Delaney 4).

Blocked shots: Duquesne 8 (Saunders 4), Tech 7 (Vassallo 3).

Steals: Duquesne 4 (Jackson 2), Tech 5 (Allen 2).

Officials: Clinton, Gaffney, Crisp.

Attendance: 5,878.