The nation's last unbeaten team fell on the same night as the only winless team got its first W in nearly two years.
Virginia Tech 78, Wake Forest 71
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Wake Forest lost at home to Virginia Tech, ending their 16-game winning streak. The Deacons had been on a roll, beating BYU, North Carolina, and Clemson in the last few weeks and becoming an overwhelming #1 in the polls and in the SportsRatings power ratings.
Virginia Tech shot 50% from the floor, but it wasn't overwhelming in terms of individual performances; leading scorers Malcolm Delaney, A.D. Vassello, and Jeff Allen went 6-of-14, 5-of-13, and 6-of-10 from the floor. So despite the fact that Wake's defense had a slump, Tech's hottest players weren't shooting the lights out; they hit just 6 of 21 3-point attempts.
What killed Wake were free throws: Virginia Tech attempted 37 and Wake Forest only 12. And this was at home! Even though the Hokies made less than 60% of theirs while the Deacons made 83% didn't matter, VT scored 22 points at the line to Wake's 10, and three Wake Forest players fouled out.
New Jersey Institute of Technology 61, Bryant 51
NJIT's streak was quite a bit longer that Wake Forest's. The Highlanders were 0-18 this season, dead last in SportsRatings' power rating among 344 teams, and finished the season in last place in the 2007-2008 season as well with an 0-29 mark. Add in four losses to end the 2006-2007 season and that's 51 straight games, 47 of them as a Division I-A school, which they've been for two years.
The team they beat, the Bryant Bulldogs, is new to Division I-A this year and was 3-15 going into the contest and ranked in the bottom 25 teams. Jheryl Wilson's 26 points led the way for NJIT as they won by their biggest margin since November of 2006.
The win will probably send NJIT rocketing all the way up to #342 in the power rating; Wake Forest will drop to around #3. So the former first- and last-place teams will now be third from the top and bottom after Wednesday's action.
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