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College basketball

ACC: BC escapes with last-second win

Associated Press
Published February 5, 2006

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BLACKSBURG, Va. - Jared Dudley is showing Boston College that he can be its top scoring option.

With leading scorer Craig Smith limited to 28 minutes by foul trouble, Dudley scored 26 and made two foul shots with five seconds left to give the No. 15 Eagles a 74-73 victory over Virginia Tech on Saturday night.

"Last two games, he's been playing like a first-team, all-league player," Eagles coach Al Skinner said. Dudley scored a season-high 28 in BC's 83-81 loss to Duke on Wednesday.

The Hokies had taken the lead at 73-72 with 36.7 seconds left on a layup by Jamon Gordon and had a chance to win it. But Zabian Dowdell's try for a 3-pointer from the left corner at the buzzer hit the front of the rim.

"I gave it my best shot, so I've got nothing to hang my head about," said Dowdell, who led the Hokies with 20 points.

"I may have rushed it a bit, with there being only five seconds left on the clock. It's just one of those things. You have one chance at it and unfortunately it didn't go in. It's one I feel I can make eight out of 10 times, but I just missed it."

Dudley scored 20 in the first half to lead the Eagles (17-5, 5-4).

"I thought the first half Dudley was tougher than us, but I thought the second half we matched his toughness," said Hokies coach Seth Greenberg, whose team had won its last two conference games.

Smith was plagued by foul trouble and scored 12 for the Eagles - six under his average.

Dowdell had 20 points for the Hokies. Gordon and freshman A.D. Vassallo each had 14, and Wynton Witherspoon added 11. Coleman Collins, the scoring and rebounding leader who missed two games while in Georgia with his critically ill father, had seven points and seven rebounds.

The Eagles stretched a 48-43 halftime lead to 57-49 with a little over 16 minutes left on a basket by Akida McLain, but the Hokies came back to take the lead at 62-61 with 12:03 left on a 3-pointer by Deron Washington.

Dudley answered with a basket to put the Eagles up again, but Dowdell then hit two foul shots.

Louis Hinnant then hit a 3-pointer and another basket and Dudley hit two foul shots to stretch the Eagles' margin to 70-64. But Collins made two layups and a foul shot to keep the Hokies in the game, setting up the exciting finish.

The Eagles shot 61.3 percent in the first half but only 40 percent afterward. The Hokies were 52.9 percent and 45.5 percent.

MIAMI 70, GA. TECH 53: The visiting Hurricanes took a 20-point lead late at 68-48 with back-to-back 3s by Guillermo Diaz and Robert Hite, and sent the Yellow Jackets to their first seven-game losing streak in nine years.

VIRGINIA 75, WAKE FOREST 73: Sean Singletary fed J.R. Reynolds for a running floater from the baseline with 3.8 seconds to play and host Virginia (11-8, 5-4) held on when Justin Gray's 40-footer at the buzzer bounced off the rim.

NORTH CAROLINA 76, CLEMSON 61: Reyshawn Terry had his first career double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Tar Heels to match an NCAA record with their 52nd straight home win in the series.

[Last modified February 5, 2006, 01:23:11]

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