ACC Friday Hoops: Hokies rally past Oklahoma State

Yellow Jackets Beat UTEP 71-61: Glen Rice Jr. had 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead Georgia Tech to a 71-61 win over UTEP on Friday night in the semifinals of the Legends Classic at Atlantic City, NJ.

Brian Oliver had 15 points and 12 rebounds for Georgia Tech (4-1) and Iman Shumpert scored 13 points.

Randy Culpepper led UTEP (3-2) with 13 points.

The Yellow Jackets will play No. 9 Syracuse at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the championship game. The Orangemen defeated Michigan in Friday's other semifinal, 53-50.

Rice went 6 for 14 in front of his father, former Michigan great Glen Rice. He didn't show his dad's famous 3-point shooting touch, however, missing on all four attempts.

Strong Second Half Lifts Maryland: Maryland played only one good half against Elon - and won anyway.

Jordan Williams had 24 points and 13 rebounds, Adrian Bowie scored 14, and Maryland dominated Elon after halftime in a 76-57 victory Friday night.

The Terrapins (5-2) trailed by 11 points with 10 minutes elapsed before closing to 34-31 at the break. Maryland's only lead in the first half was 1-0.

"We came out lackadaisical," guard Sean Mosley said. "We came out in the second half in a different mindset."

The Terrapins began the half with a 9-3 run to take a 40-37 lead. After Roger Dugas scored on a drive for Elon (2-3), Bowie drilled a 3-pointer and Williams added a dunk and a follow to put Maryland up 47-39 with 12:37 left.

It was 54-47 before Williams made a three-point play to spark a 12-0 spurt that put the Terrapins ahead by 19 with 4:53 to go.

"That's a good sign that we could turn it on like that," coach Gary Williams said. "The problem is, you have to play at a certain level for 40 minutes. We didn't do that tonight, and that bothers me."

The Terrapins survived a sluggish start against Elon, but that kind of performance against Atlantic Coast Conference competition might not fly.

"We just can't start like that because games get a little tougher," Mosley said. "We have to come out and do a better job in the first half each and every game."

Jordan scored 20 points after halftime on 8-for-10 shooting and recorded his fifth double-double in seven games.

The 6-foot-10 sophomore forward credited his bounce-back effort to a halftime speech from assistant coach Robert Ehsan.

"He really touched my heart, he really did," Jordan Williams said. "We saw how passionate he was about it, telling us how bad we were playing and what we needed to do. I just responded to what he told me to do."

Hokies Rally Past Oklahoma State: Virginia Tech closed the game on an 18-6 run to come from behind and defeat previously unbeaten Oklahoma State, 56-51, in the semifinals of the 2010 76 Classic at Anaheim, CA. The victory improves the Hokies to 4-1 overall, while the Cowboys fall to 4-1 on the season.

OSU took a 45-38 lead on a jump shot by Ray Penn with 6:02 remaining in the game. Tech went on a 10-3 run and tied the game at 48-48 with 2:27 remaining on a pair of free throws by Malcolm Delaney. Tech did not make a field goal in the final three and a half minutes, but went 10 for 12 from the line during that stretch to secure the victory, including four consecutive free throws by Delaney in the final 16 seconds.

Delaney led the Hokies with 16 points and was 10-for-11 from the line for the contest. Jeff Allen scored 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Jean-Paul Olukemi came off the bench to lead the Pokes with 17 points and Marshall Moses added 14 points and 12 rebounds.

BC Loses To Wisconsin: Junior Reggie Jackson scored 18 points to lead Boston College in a 65-55 loss to Wisconsin in the semifinal round of the Old Spice Classic.

Boston College will play either California or Notre Dame in the tournament's third-place game on Sunday, Nov. 28 at 1 p.m.

The Eagles led 29-26 at halftime, before Wisconsin stormed back in the final 20 minutes to gain the victory. The Badgers evened the score at 34-34 just four minutes into the second half. Then, with the score tied at 36-36, Wisconsin used an 18-0 run over the next six minutes to take a 54-36 lead with 7:22 to play.

After senior Joe Trapani broke the Badgers' scoring streak with a field goal with 7:03 left, Wisconsin answered with consecutive three-pointers to take their biggest margin - 22 points (60-38) - with 5:09 to play.

The Eagles, though, taking on the personality of their coach, didn't stop working at both ends of the floor. BC held the Badgers without a field goal - and with just five free throws - the rest of the way. BC ran off 15 straight points to close its deficit to seven points in the final minute of play.

Wisconsin hit all five of those free throws in the final 24 seconds.

BC led by as many as nine points (26-17 with 4:37 left in the half) in the first half, before settling for a three-point advantage at the intermission. Jackson led the Eagles with 10 points. BC shot 44.0 percent from the field and hit five three-pointers before halftime.