GREENSBORO, NC- Kyle Hines led UNC Greensboro with 21 points, but no other Spartan scored more than seven points as Virginia Tech upended UNCG, 74-51, in men's basketball action at the Greensboro Coliseum on Wednesday night.

It was Hines' 37th straight game of 10 or more points, extending his school record streak. It was the 19th time in the streak that Hines has scored 20 or more points. He entered the game averaging 21.5 ppg, ranking 11th in the nation. He moved into eighth place on UNCG's career scoring list, raising his total to 1,330 points in just his junior season.

However, as good as Hines was, the rest of his team struggled. Hines accounted for half of his team's 16 field goals. Outside of Hines' 21 points, the remaining four starters only scored eight points for the Spartans (7-9). Kevin Oleksiak and Bart Tooms each had seven points off the bench for the Spartans.

Virginia Tech, meanwhile, was pretty good themselves from the field. The Hokies (12-4) shot 48 percent from the field, although they were above 50 percent most of the night until the benches emptied, and hit 10-of-15 from behind the three-point line.

Four Hokies scored in double-figures, led by Zabian Dowdell's 17 points. Dowdell was 4-of-5 from behind the three-point arc. A.D. Vassallo added 16 points in 24 minutes off the bench, while Coleman Collins and Jamon Gordon each chipped in with 10 points.

“We knew coming into the game tonight that we were going to have to make jump shots because of their ability to block shots,” said UNCG coach Mike Dement. “We weren't able to do that. Had we gotten a few of those shots to go down, particularly early, we might have been ok.

“Tooms gave us a lift at the start of the second half (when UNCG cut the lead to seven). But then they got hot and it just got away from us. We started to get tired, having played three games in five days.

“We told our guys at the 12-minute timeout that it was getting away from us and let's just try to take it from there. Our scout team did a great job down the stretch and we actually won the last 12 minutes of the game, so we can take that from this.”

The Spartans struggled offensively right from the outset. UNCG missed 10 of its first 12 from the field. In fact, Hines was the majority of the offense in the first half. Hines, a junior from Sicklerville, NJ, made UNCG's first six field goal on his way to 16 first-half points. UNCG didn't have a field goal from any other player until the final minute of the first half.

Kendall Toney knocked down a three-pointer for UNCG's first non-Hines field goal. Despite the inbalance, however, UNCG trailed by just 12 at the half, 36-24.

Virginia Tech, on the other hand, knocked down 7-of-10 from three-point range in the opening half to account for a good portion of the halftime margin. The Hokies, coming off a win at No. 5 Duke and facing a game at home against top-ranked North Carolina on Saturday, showed no signs of the infamous “trap game” early on.

UNCG pulled to within seven, 37-30, on Kyle Hines' 19th point of the night early in the second half. But the Hokies ran off 11 straight points to open up a 48-30 lead with 16 minutes to play.

Virginia Tech extended the lead from there, opening it up to 60-32 over the next five minutes, and wasn't threatened after that.

The game was used as a fundraiser for Eastern Guilford HS, an area high school that burned to the ground back on November 1. More than $32,500 was raised, including over $27,000 from ticket sales and another $5000 in the form of a corporate donation by Verizon Wireless.

UNCG returns to action on Saturday when it hosts Chattanooga back at Fleming Gym at 7 pm.

AGATE

VIRGINIA TECH 74, UNCG 51

VIRGINIA TECH (12-4) - DOWDELL, Zabian 6-10 1-2 17; VASSALLO, A.D. 6-10 0-0 16; COLLINS, Coleman 5-9 0-2 10; GORDON, Jamon 4-7 1-1 10; WASHINGTON, Deron 2-8 3-4 8; SAILES, Markus 1-2 3-4 5; KRABBENDAM, Robert 2-4 0-0 4; WITCHER, Lewis 2-3 0-0 4; TUCKER, Chris 0-1 0-0 0; DIAKITE, Cheick 0-1 0-0 0; MUNSON, Nigel 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 28-58 8-13 74.

UNCG (7-9) - HINES, Kyle 8-15 5-11 21; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 3-8 0-0 7; TOOMS, Bart 0-2 7-7 7; VLAZNY, Greg 2-5 0-0 6; HICKMAN, Ricky 1-9 2-2 4; TONEY, Kendall 1-5 1-2 4; AKINOSHO, Matt 1-1 0-0 2; MOORE, Donald 0-0 0-0 0; BROWN, Pete 0-2 0-0 0; STYWALL, Ben 0-2 0-0 0; HARDIMAN, Mike 0-0 0-0 0; SIMMONS, Everson 0-0 0-0 0; KOIVISTO, Mikko 0-3 0-0 0; JOHNSON, Dwayne 0-3 0-2 0. Totals 16-55 15-24 51.

Halftime: Virginia Tech, 36-24. 3-point goals--Virginia Tech 10-15 (VASSALLO, A.D. 4-6; DOWDELL, Zabian 4-5; GORDON, Jamon 1-2; WASHINGTON, Deron 1-2), UNCG 4-22 (VLAZNY, Greg 2-4; TONEY, Kendall 1-4; OLEKSIAK, Kevin 1-5; KOIVISTO, Mikko 0-3; JOHNSON, Dwayne 0-1; HICKMAN, Ricky 0-5). Fouled out--Virginia Tech-None, UNCG-None. Rebounds--Virginia Tech 37 (WASHINGTON, Deron 8), UNCG 36 (HINES, Kyle 7). Assists--Virginia Tech 16 (GORDON, Jamon 5), UNCG 8 (OLEKSIAK, Kevin 2; JOHNSON, Dwayne 2). Total fouls--Virginia Tech 16, UNCG 13. Technical fouls--Virginia Tech-None, UNCG-TEAM. A-5427

SIDELINES: The loss was UNCG's sixth straight dating back to 2002-03 at the Coliseum. Last year, the Spartans lost to top-ranked Duke in front of a record crowd of 21,124... Virginia Tech is 4-0 all-time against UNCG, three first three meetings coming in the 1990s and all in Blacksburg.

- UNCG -