St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Virginia Tech
St. John's Takes Down Virginia Tech, 75-65
12/8/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 8, 2004
"Lamont Hamilton played like a man tonight," first year head coach Norm Roberts said of his sophomore's 24 point, 11 rebound effort. Hamilton's performance led St. John's (3-3) to a 75-65 win over Atlantic Coast Conference rival Virginia Tech.
Hamilton logged 38 minutes, shot 9 of 13 from the field and knocked down 6 of 10 free throws (for his 24 points), pulled down 11 boards and had four blocked shots. What a night for the Brooklyn, NY native who had averaged 11.6 points going into the contest.
"Lamont's going to be a terrific player. He came tonight to play on both ends of the floor, stayed out of foul trouble, moved his feet, rebounded, scored and was an inside presence throughout the game," Roberts noted.
"Today I was more aggressive down low. I was making sure I was posting up big, playing more aggressive and keeping my body inside," Hamilton added.
Virginia Tech (4-2) got off to a great start building an 11 point lead before the Red Storm bounced back before halftime to go on an impressive 21-9 rim to take their first lead of the game at 33-32 on a three point basket by Cedric Jackson with 2:34 left before intermission.
"It went back to second and third effort. I think they had the lead 23-12 and we got two put-backs off of offensive rebounds," Roberts said. "Tyler (Jones) got one and Eugene (Lawrence) made a big three-pointer. That's what you have to do. Players have to make plays. Tonight, a number of guys made huge plays for us."
One of the bigger plays of the night came on an open court blocked shot when Daryll Hill (18 points, seven rebounds) pinned a lay-up attempt by Zabian Dowdell and came down the other way to hit two free throws for a 63-54 advantage with 6:09 to play in the game.
Junior Rodney Epperson, coming back from an illness that kept him from playing in Saturday night's loss at Illinois State, pitched in with nine points while Jackson netted eight points and four rebounds along with Lawrence who came off the bench to dish out five assists. The Hokies were led by Carlos Dixon's 22 points and seven rebounds in the loss.
St. John's returns to action on Saturday, December 11th when the travel to Hofstra for a 4:00 p.m. tip-off. The game will be televised on FOX-NY and broadcast on 1050 ESPN radio.
