Bimbo Coles had 51 in 1988.

The Roanoke Times I File 2009

Dorenzo Hudson is introduced to the Cassell Coliseum crowd prior to the Virginia Tech-Charleston Southern game.

If someone had suggested before the season that a Virginia Tech guard would score 41 points and make 20 free throws in a game, it would have seemed entirely plausible.

After all, Malcolm Delaney scored 37 points in a game last season. He also made a school-record 225 free throws last season.

But the guard who put up 41 points and sank 20 free throws Saturday was not Delaney, who was sidelined with a sprained ankle. It was Dorenzo Hudson, who rose from supporting actor to the lead role in his team's 103-94 overtime win over Seton Hall in Cancun, Mexico.

"I'm very proud of what I did, and what we accomplished as a team," Hudson said in a phone interview Monday after being named the ACC men's basketball player of the week by a panel of media members. "Seton Hall was kind of doing a little junk talking, ... so we [were] real focused.

"Everybody had to step up, so I was like, 'All right, from the jump, I'm going to be aggressive.' "

Hudson tied Chris Smith and Dell Curry for the eighth-best scoring performance in Tech history. It was the most prolific outing by a Hokie since Bimbo Coles rang up 42 points in a 1990 game against Rutgers.

It was the most prolific outing by an ACC player since March 1, 2008, when ex-Virginia star Sean Singletary scored 41 points against Miami on the same day that former Boston College standout Tyrese Rice tallied 46 points against North Carolina.

"I scored 49 points ... [in an AAU game] before, so I knew I could do it," Hudson said. "My teammates, they found me in transition. And I attacked the rim kind of hard."

"He scored 41 points, which is an astonishing number," coach Seth Greenberg said.

It was also somewhat astonishing that the Hokies (12-1) beat Seton Hall (9-4) without Delaney, their point guard and the ACC's leading scorer.

Hudson and others rose to the challenge. Jeff Allen had 23 points and 13 rebounds. Victor Davila and freshman Manny Atkins each scored eight points. Freshman point guard Erick Green tallied seven points.

"Winning without Malcolm is going to really I think serve a great purpose for us in terms of developing some confidence and depth," Greenberg said. "We had a lot of different players step up.

"The way we won, obviously playing without Malcolm, I think has empowered and given confidence to some people."

Delaney is questionable for Sunday's ACC opener at No. 9 North Carolina, although he does have all week to undergo rehab.

"We'll just play it day by day," Greenberg said. "Malcolm's a tough kid, but I'm not going to risk the rest of the season just so he can play against Carolina."

Hudson averaged 4.6 points last season, when he started 24 of the team's 34 games. He has started every game this season, and entered Saturday's game averaging 9.8 points.

"Last year I was kind of down-and-out a little bit, starting and not starting," he said. "If I wasn't having a good game, I'd kind of get down on myself. This year I'm like, 'All right, if I don't have a good offensive game, I'm going to try to stop somebody on the defensive end.'

"This year I really don't have too much to worry about, about starting. ... I'm really a lot more focused than I was last year."

Saturday was only his fifth game in double figures this season.

"I've got it in me, so it's probably going to be expected ... for me to score some points now," he said.

Hudson has been working on driving to the basket and creating his own shot. He focused Saturday on finishing his layups and not getting bothered by contact. He was 9-of-22 from the field, and tied his career high with three 3-pointers.

He was 20-of-21 from the free-throw line, tying Terry Penn's 53-year-old school mark for most free throws made in a game. Hudson was one shy of tying the ACC record for most free throws made in a game.

Hudson entered the game shooting 67.5 percent from the charity stripe this season, compared to Delaney's 86.3 percent.

He also saw some action at point guard Saturday and dished out five assists.

Hudson guarded Seton Hall star Jeremy Hazell, who had 24 points -- 14 fewer than he scored in his previous outing against Syracuse.

"Hudson obviously was asked to do a great deal and stepped up and made some plays on both ends of the floor," Greenberg said. "The thing that I was most pleased with ... was his leadership.

"If you were seeing him huddle guys up coming out of timeouts or reinforcing things we talked about in the scouting report, ... his choices of what to say and when in talking about the things we need to do to win to his teammates during the course of the game, to me that was as big a step forward as scoring 41 points."