BLACKSBURG -- Markus Sailes and Whit Holcomb-Faye each made his long-awaited return to the court. A.D. Vassallo made his debut. And the Virginia Tech men's basketball team made sure its season would get off on a good note.

Four Hokies scored in double figures to help Tech squash Radford 80-50 on Thursday in the NABC Classic at Cassell Coliseum.

Radford knew opening the season against Tech would be tough. The Hokies return four starters from last season's NIT team -- Tech's first postseason bid since the 1996 NCAA tournament.

Tech center Coleman Collins had 17 points and was 6-of-6 from the field. He had three of Tech's six dunks. The Hokies shot 60.4 percent from the field.

"It was encouraging and something to build on," Collins said.

Vassallo, a freshman from Puerto Rico, had seven points in his Tech debut. He started at small forward in place of the graduated Carlos Dixon.

"It was really fun," Vassallo said. "I was still a little nervous."

Coach Seth Greenberg said he started Vassallo instead of Sailes because he wanted to be able to bring in Sailes, the better ball-handler, off the bench. Sailes played 29 minutes -- 13 more than Vassallo, who got in foul trouble.

Sailes missed all but three games last season because of a fractured leg. The junior hadn't played in a real game since last December.

"I had some jitters, as you could see when I tried to get my first dunk -- I lost it out of bounds," Sailes said. "I'm just happy to be out there with the fellas again and being part of the team -- with a uniform instead of a sweatsuit."

The game also featured the return of Holcomb-Faye, who scored 22 points for the Highlanders. He hadn't played in a real game since he and three others were suspended from the team in early February. A father of one of the suspended players later said it was because of marijuana.

Holcomb-Faye was glad to be back.

"I've been looking forward to it since the incident last year," Holcomb-Faye said. "I've worked harder this summer than I've ever worked, and I've taken it more seriously, with the situation that happened. I was just ready to get back on the court."

"I wouldn't trade him for any guard that we're going to face," RU coach Byron Samuels said.

The Hokies were outrebounded 17-10 in the first half, and finished tied in that category with Radford at 33 apiece. Rebounding was a Tech weakness last year.

"We need to work on rebounding once again," said Zabian Dowdell, who had 16 points for Tech. "It's kind of sad to be saying that."

Holcomb-Faye was the only Highlander to score in double figures. Radford shot 30.8 percent from the field.

"Guys had opportunities and just didn't make shots," Samuels said.

The Highlanders committed 24 turnovers.

"They got a hell of a lot of transition points," RU guard Andre Bynum said. "We started being careless with the ball."

Jamon Gordon had 13 points for the Hokies, who scored 11 straight points to grab a 19-10 lead and led the rest of the way.

"We've got to get back in transition and we cannot turn the basketball over," Samuels said. "We gave them way too many opportunities to just go down, lay it up, dunk it."

The 3-point arc has been moved back to 20 feet, 9 inches as an experiment for this tournament.

Radford MP FG FT R A F PT

Oliver 35 4-14 0-3 9 1 3 8

McIntyre 23 3-7 3-5 8 1 4 9

Ricks 26 0-0 2-3 4 0 1 2

Bynum 36 3-6 0-0 5 1 4 7

Holcomb-Faye 38 6-17 8-9 1 0 2 22

Ross 9 0-2 0-0 0 0 1 0

McDuffy 9 0-2 0-2 0 0 2 0

Brown 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Thomas 20 0-4 2-2 3 0 3 2

Kleckner 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Hall 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 200 16-52 15-24 33 3 22 50

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Washington 28 3-10 1-4 6 1 4 7

Vassallo 26 3-6 1-2 3 3 4 7

Collins 28 6-6 5-6 3 1 2 17

Dowdell 34 6-8 3-4 1 3 3 16

Gordon 36 4-8 2-3 8 8 2 13

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

Calloway 3 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Travis 3 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 2

Sailes 29 4-5 3-4 3 2 2 12

Ritchie 2 1-1 2-3 0 0 1 4

Diakito 10 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 0

Tucker 9 1-2 0-0 3 1 1 2

Totals 200 29-48 17-26 33 19 23 80

Rebounds include team rebounds

Score by periods:

Radford 27 23 -- 50

Virginia Tech 36 44 -- 80

Three point goals: Radford 3-20 (Holcomb-Faye 2-9, Bynum 1-2, Oliver 0-4, Thomas 0-3). Virginia Tech 5-12 (Gordon 3-5, Dowdell 1-3, Sailes 1-1, Washington 0-1, Vassallo 0-1, Tucker 0-1).

Turnovers: Radford 24 (Holcomb-Faye 7), Virginia Tech 17 (Washington, Dowdell, Sailes 3).

Blocked shots: Radford 5 (Ricks, McIntyre 2), Virginia Tech 6 (Collins, Gordon 2).

Steals: Radford 5 (Holcomb-Faye 2), Virginia Tech 11 (Dowdell, Sailes 4).

Officials: Ted Valentine, Bernard Clinton, Jeff Nichols.

Attendance: 9,847.