FanHouse A.d. Vassallo

Trevon Hughes drove down the court, pulled up at the free throw line and drained a shot with 0.7 seconds left to give Wisconsin a 74-72 win in Virginia Tech (see it here).

The win gives the Big Ten an early 1-0 lead in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

Wisconsin lead pretty much the whole game before a 14-5 Hokies run tied the game with seven seconds left. Then Hughes took the inbounds pass and won the game for the Badgers. A.D. Vassallo, who hit the game-tying three for the Hokies, scored 30 points for Virginia Tech in the loss.

The win ended the ACC's 11-game home winning streak in the Challenge and gave the Big Ten one of those key "swing-games" that they needed to win the Challenge.

The A-10's hot streak just won't stop. Richmond, an afterthought thus far, has given the league another upset win by knocking off Virginia Tech 52-49 tonight. The league can double their pleasure if Xavier beats Virginia as well this evening.

As you can tell from the final score, it wasn't an offensive spectacular and almost turned into a Richmond blowout. The Spiders opened up a nine-point lead late in the game on the back of a 14-2 run and stifling defense. They forced 23 turnovers and kept turning them into points. David Gonzalvez carried the scoring load with 17 points for the Spiders, five during that big run, and hit two free throws to ice the game.

The Spiders shot just 39.6% for the game but the Hokies couldn't buy buckets. They were 4-of-17 from three and, despite the strong defense, had enough good looks to win the game. A.D. Vassallo, Tech's leading scorer, was just 3-of-12 and Deron Washington missed a key free throw that would have tied the game at 50. Richmond is no offensive juggernaut but VT couldn't execute at all and deserved their fate.

Richmond probably isn't going anywhere this season but their defense is going to make for a lot of unpleasant nights for A-10 opponents. Just another reason why the league schedule should be dynamite night in and night out. For the Hokies, a second straight trip to the NCAAs seems beyond their reach at 8-6 and without a quality win entering ACC play.