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Mark Berman back here in Blacksburg, where the Virginia Tech men's basketball team beat Georgia Tech 92-84.

The Hokies led the entire second half en route to clinching their fourth winning season in coach Seth Greenberg's five years at the helm. The Hokies improved to 7-6 in the ACC. Not bad for a team picked to finish 10th in the ACC's preseason media poll. They have won 2 straight after a 3 game skid.

"We weren't going to use our youth as an excuse," Greenberg said. "Two weeks ago we were Cinderella. And then a week ago we weren't so brilliant - 'we ran into the wall.' All I said to our gguys was, 'It's none of those things. Let's get better today. Let's play the next 40 minutes. Where do we need to improve? That's all we're trying to do. We're just trying to get better."

Leading 70-63 with 7:24 left, the Hokies went on an 8-0 run to build a 78-67 cushion with 4:53 to go.

AD Vassallo had 27 points for the Hokies. Malcolm Delaney had 16 points. Deron Washington had 10 points and nine rebounds for the Hokies, who outrebounded GT 42-27.

"We had a lot of heroes," Greenberg said. "Lewis Witcher (8 points) ... really good energy and really good focus and quickness, geting to the offensive glass and playing off Jeff (Allen). ... AD struggled early on but he stayed with it and made some really tough shots. After he made those tough shots I think he started to see a big basket. The job Deron Washington [did] after {Anthony] Morrow got it going was huge. .. He realy did a good job of chasing him off screens aand staying down on the shot fakes, ... making it hard for Morrow to get a good look after he got it going."

JT Thompson had 13 points and eight rebounds off the bench after missing the Maryland game with a sprained ankle.

"Probably the hero of the game was [trainer] Keith Doolan, getting JT back healthy," Greenberg said.

"I wasn't really planning on coming back and getting as much time as I did," Thompson said. "I still have some aches and pains, but it's getting there."

Thompson was just 1-of-8 from the field in Saturday's loss at UNC.

"I used shot fakes (this time), so that helped me out a lot," he said.

Maurice Miller had 29 points, a career high for the freshman point guard, and Morrow had 18 points. GT shot 46.3 percent from the field, including 59.1 percent in the second half.

Matt Causey had just two points, on free throws, after scoring 30 points and making seven treys in GT's win in Atlanta over the Hokies last month. He did not attempt a shot from the field.

"We slowed them down a little bit," Washington said. "Last game they got out, they was making wide open shots. We played better defense. .. .They didn't get too many open 3's this game. Last game Causey got open 3's left and right."

The Hokies had nine turnovers in the first half but just one in the second half.

"Hank {Thorns} did a great job," Greenberg said. "We went small and Hank settled us down. .. . We were a little tougher offensively."

The teams combined for 60 fouls.

"I don't think there was anything more to the number of fouls than two teams that were extremely passionate and understood the significance of the game," Greenberg said.

Game story in Sunday's paper and online Sunday. Aaron will also have a column Sunday