November 1, 2001

The Virginia Tech men's basketball team tipped off the season in rousing fashion with an 83-57 win over Nike Elite in an exhibition game held Thursday night at Cassell Coliseum.

After a bit of a sluggish start, the Hokies got untracked and led the final 35 minutes of the game. Tech shot 56 percent from the field, held Nike Elite to just 30.9 percent from the floor and outrebounded Nike Elite 47-31.

"Defensively, I thought that was the best we've played in maybe three years," Tech head coach Ricky Stokes said. "We did a good job there. We were active and we helped out when we needed to help. We've worked a lot on our man defense, but we've still got some work to do."

Offensively, Tech turned it up a notch when Nike Elite cut the Hokie lead to two early in the second half. The Hokies went on a 10-0 run and never looked back, shooting 71 percent in the second half.

Carlos Dixon led the Hokies with 17 points, connecting on five of his six shot attempts, including three of his four 3-point attempts. Brian Chase and Eric Branham added 14 points each. Tech committed 21 turnovers for the game (compared to 15 assists), but Branham, the junior-college transfer, did not commit any.

"That's the one thing I was disappointed with," Stokes said. "We need to limit our turnovers. But I really liked our enthusiasm. I thought we played hard and played well for the most part."