ORLANDO, Fla. -- On Wednesday, most Virginia Tech men's basketball players rode the "Tower of Terror" free-fall ride at the Disney-MGM Studios park.

On Friday, the Hokies averted a free fall in the Old Spice Classic. They bounced back from a disappointing first-round defeat to cruise past Montana 77-56 in a consolation-bracket game at the Milk House at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.

"We had great senior leadership tonight in a difficult situation," Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "I'm just happy that we found a way to bounce back and show some character."

Tech (3-1) will play in the fifth-place game of the eight-team tournament at 1 p.m. Sunday, when it will face 2006 NCAA tournament participant Southern Illinois (3-1) of the Missouri Valley Conference.

On Thursday, Tech blew an eight-point second-half lead and fell 71-68 to Western Michigan, a Mid-American Conference team without any seniors. The loss looked even more unimpressive after Western Michigan was hammered 79-54 by West Virginia in Friday's semifinals.

The Hokies were determined to fare better against the Grizzlies (1-4) of the Big Sky Conference.

"Our team did a great job focusing on this game instead of letting the last game take some of that focus away," said senior guard Zabian Dowdell, who had a game-high 18 points.

"It was real hard losing that game, knowing we should've beat them," said senior guard Jamon Gordon, who had 11 points and four steals. "We tried to show people [Friday] what we really are."

Senior post player Coleman Collins scored 13 points and snared six rebounds in 25 minutes Friday, bouncing back from a subpar showing Thursday. Collins had just five points and five rebounds against Western Michigan, including two points and no rebounds in the second half.

"I was a little bit more consistent [Friday], getting up in the air to rebound and getting off to help defensively," Collins said. "I didn't feel I had a good game yesterday. I kind of wanted to bounce back. It was kind of good that we had a game the next day so we didn't have time to dwell on that loss."

The Hokies had little trouble with 2006 NCAA tournament participant Montana, jumping to a 10-0 lead. Gordon had eight of those points.

"Last game, we feel like we kind of gave the game away," said Gordon, who had 11 points and four steals. "We knew we needed to come out and just jump out and get a lead early."

Tech had 16 turnovers Thursday but just eight on Friday.

"We took good care of the basketball," Greenberg said. "We got transition baskets."

After being outrebounded 34-29 by Western Michigan, the Hokies were outrebounded 35-30 by the Grizzlies. But Tech did have 21 defensive rebounds, and shot 55.4 percent from the field.

Montana, which beat Nevada in the first round of the 2006 NCAA tournament, trailed 36-24 at halftime.

Jordan Hasquet had 12 points and 12 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who shot 41.4 percent from the field. They were 5-of-19 from 3-point range.

A.D. Vassallo, who was 2-of-10 from the field and had just five points Thursday, scored nine points Friday. Nigel Munson also had nine points.

Montana MP FG FT R A F PT

Hasquet 30 13-5 3-2 12 2 4 12

Dlouhy 30 9-5 0-0 2 0 2 12

Strait 27 9-4 3-0 4 1 0 8

Swift 32 5-1 0-0 3 4 3 2

Ellis 16 3-2 0-0 0 3 0 4

Rundles 16 2-1 0-0 2 0 2 2

Chase 3 1-0 0-0 1 0 1 0

Martin 13 7-4 0-0 0 4 0 11

Staudacher 12 2-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Chavez 16 7-2 2-1 5 1 3 5

Vanderjagt 5 0-0 0-0 1 0 0 0

Totals 200 58-24 8-3 30 15 15 56

Virginia Tech MP FG FT R A F PT

Washington 25 5-2 4-2 3 2 2 6

Collins 25 10-5 3-3 6 2 0 13

Krabbendam 13 4-2 0-0 3 1 2 4

Dowdell 27 11-7 1-1 1 4 0 18

Gordon 22 7-5 2-1 2 3 2 11

Munson 16 6-4 0-0 2 2 1 9

Witcher 8 1-0 4-1 1 0 0 1

Travis 2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Sailes 16 1-1 0-0 3 2 1 2

Diakite 15 3-2 0-0 3 0 3 4

Vassallo 16 7-3 2-2 2 0 0 9

Tucker 15 1-0 0-0 2 1 1 0

Totals 200 56-31 16-10 28 17 12 77

Rebounds include team rebounds.

Montana 24 32 -- 56

Virginia Tech 36 41 -- 77

Three point goals: Montana 5-19 (Martin 3-5, Dlouhy 2-5, Hasquet 0-2, Swift 0-2, Staudacher 0-2, Chavez 0-2, Rundles 0-1); Virginia Tech 5-10 (Dowdell 3-4, Munson 1-2, Vassallo 1-4)

Turnovers: Montana 17 (Dlouhy 5); Virginia Tech 8 (Washington, Vassallo 2)

Blocked shots: Montana 1 (Strait); Virginia Tech 2 (Diakite 2)

Steals: Montana 4 (Ellis 3); Virginia Tech 11 (Gordon 4)

Officials: Ed Hightower, J.B. Caldwell, Steve Olson

Attendance: 1,020