New York, NY -- Down by eight points at half time, the Hokies opened the second half with an 18-3 run and made it stand up down the stretch, earning their first-ever Big East Tournament win and improving their chances at an NIT bid by beating Rutgers 61-58. The Hokies were led by freshman Coleman Collins with 12 points, and Bryant Matthews and Markus Sailes chipped in 10 apiece.

With the win, Tech goes to 15-13 on the season, winners of four in a row and five of their last six. The Hokies move on to the second round, where they'll face #1 seed Pittsburgh at noon Thursday, on ESPN2. Rutgers drops to 16-12 and awaits an NIT bid.

Bryan Randall made the first of two free throws with 10.4 seconds left to put the Hokies up by three, 61-58. Randall missed the second, and Rutgers rebounded it and ran it out to half court and called time out with 5.8 seconds left. The Scarlet Knights inbounded the ball and got it to Herve Lamizana at the top of the key. Guarded closely by Tech's Allen Calloway -- who was under orders to foul but didn't hit Lamizana hard enough -- Lamizana threw the ball to a wide-open Calvin Wooten on the right wing, but the three-pointer by the little-used Wooten was an air ball, and the Hokies rebounded with one second left.

The hair-raising finish put the cap on a game that was a seesaw battle all the way. Rutgers ended the first half with a 15-3 run and went into half time up 35-27. The Hokies made some half time adjustments and came out smoking after the break, going on an 18-3 run and taking a 45-38 lead with 13:16 to go on a three-pointer by Sailes. During that stretch, Rutgers had 7 turnovers and made just 1 of 12 shots.

The Hokies held the lead and extended it to 54-45 on a 3-pointer by Sailes with 6:15 remaining, and that's when the Scarlet Knights mounted a comeback. With Lamizana (just 4 points on 1-7 shooting) on the bench with four fouls, the Knights went on a 9-1 run in less than two minutes. Marquis Webb, who scored a career-high 19 points, had 8 of the 9 Rutgers points in the run, and he made two free throws that closed it to 55-54, Tech, with 4:21 to go.

From there, it was nip and tuck. Rutgers tied it at 56 on a layup by Sean Axani with 3:24 remaining, and the Hokies turned up the defensive pressure. Rutgers didn't score for over two minutes, and the Hokies pushed it to a 60-56 lead on two free throws each by Matthews and Sailes.

Ricky Shields hit a layup with 1:09 left to close it to 60-58, and he was fouled by Gordon but missed the free throw. Calloway missed two shots in close for VT, giving the Knights a chance to tie or go ahead, but Rutgers turned it over when Lamizana threw a pass that was too hot for Adrian Hill to handle, and it went out of bounds to VT with 17.4 seconds left.

The Hokies gambled, throwing the long inbounds pass to Calloway. Calloway tried to beat Lamizana to the basket, only to have his layup attempt blocked by Lamizana with 12 seconds to go, eerily reminiscent of Lamizana's block of Coleman Collins' driving layup in the March 3rd game in Blacksburg. Rutgers' Quincy Douby rebounded the block and threw the ball upcourt, but Zabian Dowdell deflected it off the hands of Shields and out of bounds, giving Tech possession with 12 seconds left.

Tech coach Seth Greenberg inserted Randall, a 36.8% (7-19) free throw shooter into the game, and the Hokies inbounded it to him. Randall was fouled with 10.4 seconds left by Wooten, setting up his make and Rutgers' subsequent missed three-pointer.

Tech won despite a poor game from Matthews, who scored a season-low 10 points on 3-13 shooting, including 1-6 from three-point range. The rest of the Hokies picked up the slack, as the team shot 22-55 (40%) as a whole and held Rutgers to 17-49 (35%). VT registered 16 steals, the fourth time this season they have had 15 or more steals. Tech forced 23 Rutgers turnovers and committed just 14 themselves. The steals and turnovers helped make up for a 43-28 rebounding deficit.

And so the Hokies continue on their improbable late-season roll, and an NIT bid is close enough for them to smell it. VT now looks ahead to league champion Pittsburgh (27-3 overall, 13-3 Big East). Pittsburgh defeated Tech 78-59 on January 6th in Pittsburgh.

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