GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) - Jarell Eddie scored a career-high 28 points and Virginia Tech hit a season-high 14 3-pointers to hold off UNC Greensboro 96-87 on Monday night.
Erick Green added a career-best 26 points and Robert Brown had 10 for the Hokies (4-0), who had to fend off a late Spartans' rally to remain undefeated.
Trevis Simpson scored 25 points and Derrell Armstrong added 23 for UNC Greensboro (1-3), which rallied from a 13-point deficit in the second half to go ahead 77-73 with 6:07 remaining.
The Hokies shot 45.3 percent (24 of 53) from the field, including 14 of 22 on 3-pointers, and hit 34 of 42 from the free-throw line Monday. Virginia Tech ended with a 41-38 rebounding advantage against the Spartans.
Still, that nearly wasn't enough, as UNC Greensboro - now 1-46 against Atlantic Coast Conference teams - fought back from a 14-point deficit in the first half to briefly lead before Virginia Tech rallied for a 45-41 margin at the break. UNC Greensboro overcame another double-digit Virginia Tech lead in the second half to challenge late.
The Hokies were up 67-54 with 14 minutes left in the second half when UNC Greensboro began whittling away at their lead. The Spartans went on a 23-6 run, capped by a pair of Simpson layups, giving UNC Greensboro its final lead.
Virginia Tech, which has won all eight meetings against the Spartans, responded with a 10-0 run to regain command. Green scored six points during the run, which ended with Eddie's fifth 3-pointer and an 83-77 Hokies lead with 2:52 left.
Kelvin McNeil had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Korey Van Dusen added 10 points for UNC Greensboro.
The Spartans led early in the first half, going up 7-6 less than three minutes in, when Virginia Tech went on a 17-2 run. Will Johnson hit three of the Hokies' four 3-pointers during the run, and Cadarian Raines' dunk put them up 23-9 with 12:48 left.
Virginia Tech would go up by 14 points again later in the half, leading 30-16 on Green's steal-and-dunk with 9:16 remaining. But the Spartans responded with a 17-2 run, capped by Kayel Locke's layup with 4:25 left, to put UNC Greensboro up 33-32, its final lead of the half.
After tying things at 35-35, the Hokies pulled back into the lead on Marquis Rankin's layup with 3:40 left, and followed that with a Jarrell 3-pointer and a Joey van Zegeren layup to pull ahead 42-35 with 1:55 remaining.
The Spartans made one final run, getting an Armstrong 3-pointer, a David Williams free throw and a McNeil layup to cut Virginia Tech's lead to 42-41 with 27 seconds left. But Eddie hit his third 3-pointer of the half at the buzzer to put the Hokies up by four points at intermission.
| Scoreboard | |||
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
| Virginia Tech (4-0) « | 45 | 51 | 96 |
| NC-Greensboro (1-3) | 41 | 46 | 87 |
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| Virginia Tech Hokies | |||||||
| STARTERS | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| J. Eddie, F | 34 | 7-9 | 9-10 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 28 |
| C. Raines, F | 27 | 3-8 | 3-4 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| C. Barksdale, F | 22 | 1-4 | 3-4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| E. Green, G | 38 | 4-15 | 16-16 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 26 |
| R. Brown, G | 30 | 3-7 | 1-2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 10 |
| BENCH | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| M. Wood | 19 | 1-5 | 2-4 | 11 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| J. Van Zegeren | 12 | 1-1 | 0-2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| W. Johnston | 10 | 3-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| M. Rankin | 8 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Totals | 24-53 | 34-42 | 41 | 13 | 15 | 96 | |
| 45.3% | 81% | ||||||
| NC-Greensboro Spartans | |||||||
| STARTERS | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| K. McNeil, F | 27 | 5-8 | 2-3 | 12 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| D. Williams, F | 17 | 2-2 | 1-2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 |
| T. Simpson, G | 31 | 10-23 | 2-2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 25 |
| K. Van Dussen, G | 28 | 4-9 | 0-0 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 10 |
| D. Parker, G | 23 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| BENCH | M | FG | FT | TR | A | PF | PTS |
| D. Armstrong | 30 | 7-15 | 5-6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 23 |
| K. Locke | 25 | 2-8 | 2-4 | 7 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| N. Paulos | 9 | 1-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| T. Hoffer | 7 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| R. White | 3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 32-75 | 12-17 | 38 | 16 | 25 | 87 | |
| 42.7% | 70.6% | ||||||
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