March 5, 2003

Virginia Tech's quest to make the BIG EAST tournament took a hit Wednesday night as the Miami Hurricanes shot 52.7 percent from the floor and got scoring from some unlikely sources to beat the Hokies 79-71 in a BIG EAST game in front of 3,020 fans at Cassell Coliseum.

The loss dropped Tech to 11-17 on the season, but more importantly, to 4-11 in the BIG EAST. The Hokies now need to beat West Virginia this Saturday and hope that Miami (11-15, 4-11) loses to St. John's on Saturday night in order to make the BIG EAST tournament. A Tech win over the 'Canes would have clinched a spot in the tournament. Instead, Miami owns the tiebreaker over Tech by virtue of its two wins over the Hokies this season.

"We controlled our own destiny," Tech guard Brian Chase said. "And we let it slip away."

"It's very disappointing," Tech guard Carlos Dixon said. "But give them credit. They played their hearts out and they beat us."

Tech never led in this one and trailed by 10 twice in the second half before tying the game both times on 10-0 runs. The Hokies tied the game at 63 the final time when Dixon converted a three-point play with 3:37 left in the game.

The 'Canes, though, regained the lead when Eric Wilkins connected on arguably Miami's biggest basket of the season. Wilkins, a 6-foot-4 freshman guard, hit a fadeaway jumper with less than five seconds on the shot clock to give Miami a 65-63 lead.

That started an 11-1 run as Miami built its lead back to 10 and never looked back. The 'Canes hit 10-of-12 from the free-throw line in the final 1:09 to seal their second road win and first BIG EAST road win of the season.

"I thought that shot was huge," Miami coach Perry Clark said. "I felt if they ever got the lead, then it would be like a runaway horse and we'd never catch them.

"It's about time something good happened to us. You look at our games and it's not that we've played badly [Miami has lost four games in overtime this season]. We just haven't made shots and turned the ball over at crucial times. Coming into this game, I expected us to give tremendous effort, but tonight, we didn't do things to self-destruct."

James Jones led Miami with a game-high 21 points and Darius Rice - who sat out Miami's game against BC this past weekend with an injury to his shooting hand - scored 10 on 3-of-10 from the floor after scoring 32 against Tech in the first meeting. But the two guys who killed Tech were guards Armondo Surratt and Wilkins.

Wilkins, who had been in double figures just twice all season and came into the game averaging 3.8 points per game, scored a career-high 19 points and made 7-of-9 from the floor. And Surratt, who came into the game averaging 6.2 points per game, scored 15 points and dished out eight assists.

"We seemed a step slow and we just never could get a handle on them defensively," Tech head coach Ricky Stokes said. "You have to give their guards credit. They hit some tough shots and we couldn't get a handle on either one of them."

Tech, which shot just 39.1 percent from the floor, got another double-double from Terry Taylor, who led the Hokies with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Bryant Matthews added 16 points, but made just 5-of-18 from the floor, and Dixon finished with 12.

The Hokies travel to Morgantown, W.Va. for the regular-season finale this Saturday. Tip-off is slated for 4 p.m. The Hokies drilled the Mountaineers last season in Morgantown.

"The good thing is we've still got a chance to make the BIG EAST tournament," Stokes said. "We'll have to go up there and battle and hopefully get a win. And then - no disrespect to Miami - we'll have to cheer for St. John's."