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  Article by Dan Tortora

  The WHO: 11th-seeded Wake Forest Demon Deacons vs. 14th-seeded Virginia Tech Hokies.

  The WHAT: A needed win in the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament to keep the hopes of an NCAA Tournament alive.

  The WHEN: Day 1 of the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament, Game 2.

  The WHERE: On the court of the Greensboro Coliseum, where Virginia Tech were on the right side of the seesaw at the final buzzer, defeating Wake Forest, 81-80.

  The WHY: By being a typical Buzz Williams-led team; Williams, no matter what the first half look like, has found ways while with the Marquette Golden Eagles and now with the Hokies, to keep games close and ever-interesting as time ticks closer to the end. Also, the absolutely superb play of Jalen Hudson.

  The HOW: With 13:46 left in the game, Williams and his squad never gave up, despite losing their 10-point lead (41-31) from the first half and playing from behind for 11:25 of the final 13:46. Have "Much ado about something", the Hokies' Hudson took his 14-point performance from the first half and raised it four more points, scoring 18 in the second half. Hudson went 10-for-18 overall and made all 10 of his attempts from the free-throw line. Within the final 3:58, Hudson went 6-for-6 from the charity stripe and made his final three tries from the field, including going inside, slipping, but still getting the ball up on the right side of the basket off the backboard for the one-point advantage that stuck, 81-80.

  *NOTES:

  The officiating crew had to deliberate over the ball going out-of-bounds on the Wake Forest possession that followed Hudson's make that placed Wake Forest behind by one. After coming together the officials decided the ball went out on Virginia Tech, giving the ball back to Wake Forest as a result, with 6.1 seconds to play.

  On that final possession of the game, the Demon Deacons missed three tries: Konstantinos "Dinos" Mitoglou missed his jumper, followed by Devin Thomas and Codi Miller-McIntyre missing their putback attempts, one after the other, with Miller-McIntyre's rolling off the rim as time ran away from the Demon Deacons.

  After losing the lead off of a three-pointer made by Virginia Tech's Adam Smith, which moved Virginia Tech ahead 75-72 with 2:32 remaining in the contest, Mitoglou gained the advantage back for Wake Forest with 25 seconds to play off of a three of his own, moving Wake Forest ahead, 80-79.

  Miller-McIntyre and Thomas combined to score more than half of the Demon Deacons' 80 points, accounting for 45 points from Miller-McIntyre's 23 and Thomas' 22.

  Cornelius Hudson joined his adversary of the same last name, Jalen Hudson, in scoring in double-figures, ending the game with 14 points for Wake Forest.

  The closest scorer on the Hokies to Jalen Hudson was Ahmed Hill, who scored 20 points less than Hudson; Hill's 12 points made him the only other Hokies' player to reach double-digits in scoring in this game.

  Virginia Tech had a mere four turnovers in 40 minutes of game play; breaking it down, that means the Hokies turned the ball over once every 10 minutes.