BLACKSBURG, Va. -- The wind sliced through the frozen limestone campus all day long, with the wind-chill factor crawling from 5 degrees to 14, and Virginia Tech students retreated into vertical Cassell Coliseum before sundown.
Many wore camouflage pants. Most wore T-shirts.
T-shirts worked. For more than two hours, few warmer places existed in the basketball universe.
It got so hot on the Wake Forest bench that Coach Dino Gaudio took off his coat -- twice. It got so hot on the floor that referee Tim Kelly turned crimson -- about 10 times. Or maybe he just felt conspicuous, with Gaudio pointing an index finger at him from 40 feet away.
In the end, only one heat index mattered. Virginia Tech finally warmed up and converted enough foul shots down the stretch to repel Wake Forest 87-83, winning the momentary struggle for second place in the ACC.
Gaudio and the Hokies' Seth Greenberg, friends away from the competitive cauldron, met in a cinderblock hallway just off the court about 15 minutes later. They embraced, somewhat awkwardly, and Greenberg asked Gaudio which team Wake Forest plays next.
"At N.C. State," Gaudio said. "How about you?"
"At Duke," Greenberg said, smiling and pausing for effect. "I'll trade."
The outcome enhanced Virginia Tech's drive for the second NCAA invitation of Greenberg's tenure and complicated Wake Forest's surge toward first place. The Deacons (18-6, 8-4 ACC) now trail Duke (9-2) by two games in the loss column, with the Hokies (8-3) and Maryland (7-3) filling the first-division gap.
In one sense, Wake Forest bobbled a great opportunity, leading by 11 points with 12½ minutes left and Virginia Tech big men accumulating fouls. But Al-Farouq Aminu, double-teamed in the post, got only three shots and four points in the second half, finishing with 25.
"I'm cool with that," Aminu said, explaining that he prefers to locate teammates when defenses collapse on him.
As the Hokies broke down Wake Forest's defense and turned up the scoring machine, the decibel level soared beyond the reasonable ceiling for any 9,847 people anywhere.
The most contentious moment came long before money time. After a foul with about 8 minutes left in the first half, center Chas McFarland bumped into Tech's J.T. Thompson, who used his arm to shove McFarland in the chest. Kelly called a technical on Thompson. The three refs -- Kelly, Bob Donato and lead official Mike Eades -- conferred, then reviewed a replay. They held another summit conference. They added a technical on McFarland.
Gaudio complained on the floor, but he later deferred his analysis pending a videotape review. "I never saw what happened," Gaudio said.
McFarland said the incident started when he was walking into the foul-line huddle. "I got pushed," he said. "I guess they looked at replay. The next thing I know, I had one. I didn't even know it. From now on, I guess when I get pushed, I get one, too."
Gaudio became more agitated near the end when the wrong Tech player, Dorenzo Hudson, took a foul shot and missed. The refs huddled and agreed with Gaudio -- except that they waved off the miss and gave Jeff Allen two shots, both of which he missed.
Virginia Tech didn't miss many more. Ish Smith, the Wake Forest point guard, packed the disappointment in his equipment bag and managed a smile.
"I don't know how the schedule goes," he said, "but I know we've got to finish strong and hope for the best. We can't look over our shoulders. We've got to continue to push."
They pushed on through the snow-covered night, one lost game closer to the finish line.
lrawlings@wsjournal.com
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