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Unfortunately, they did not.

Sophomore forward Sean Evans picked up two quick fouls in the first half and the Hokies frustrated the Red Storm by using a 1-3-1 zone for all 40 minutes on the way to an 81-67 victory.

St. John's (9-2), off to its best start in 18 years, lost for only the second time in 11 games.

It was the second year in a row that the Hokies (8-4) downed the Red Storm in the finals of this event. Virginia Tech, a member of the Big East until 2004, is now 1-1 against its old conference this season, having lost to Seton Hall during the Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

"They kind of wore us down," St. John's head coach Norm Roberts said of the ACC team. "They wore us down. We've got to be tougher and fight thought that stuff."

A.J. Vassallo, a 6-foot-6 senior guard for the Hokies, led all scorers with 24 points on 8 of 21 shooting, hitting 4 of 8 from beyond the arc. Malcolm Delaney added 22 points and was named the Lou Carnesecca tournament MVP. The bigger, more physical Hokies out rebounded the Red Storm, 42-34.

"We're one of the toughest teams in our league, and we just had to come out and show that," said Delaney, a 6-3 sophomore guard who played a full 80 minutes of basketball in two games.

Evans, Vassallo, D.J. Kennedy (St. John's), K.J. Matsui (Columbia) and Ryan Schneider (Marist) were named to the all-tournament team.

Paris Horne led the Red Storm with 14 points, Kennedy added 13 and Rob Thomas had 12 points and nine rebounds filling in for the injured Justin Burrell, who sustained facial fractures after being hit in the face by Evans during practice Thursday. The Red Storm is also without Anthony Mason Jr. for the season; he is out with a foot injury.

St. John's sophomore point guard Malik Boothe played with a taped left thumb, the result of having it stepped on and sprained during the Marist game last Saturday

After posting 19 points and 13 rebounds in Saturday's win over Marist, Evans picked up two quick fouls and sat for much of the first half. He scored all 13 of his points in the second half.

"There's nothing we can do about the injuries," Roberts said. "Nothing we can do about Mason begin out, nothing we can do about Burrell being out, nothing we can do about Malik's thumb being hurt. Nothing we can do about it. "It's not a sprint, it's a marathon," he added, referring to the season. "All it's going to do is make our other guys better, give them more depth."

Virginia Tech used a 10-0 run midway through the second half to take a 57-45 lead. Vassallo drained a 3-pointer from the right wing, directly in front of the Hokies' bench, and Delaney added another from beyond the arc during the spurt.

Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg opted to use the zone throughout the game and he sensed that it would surprise the Red Storm.

"I don't think he expected us to play 40 minutes of zone," Greenberg said. "That's the longest period of zone I've played in 17 years as a head coach."

Boothe confessed that it bothered him. "I guess it just really messed me up all together," he said. "As the head of this team, since I wasn't fully functioning, I guess it really bothered everyone else."

St. John's returns to action Saturday against Miami at the Garden. The Storm hopes to have Burrell back for that game. He will be reevaluated Tuesday.

COLUMBIA 63, MARIST 58

In a battle of New York schools, Columbia won the consolation game, 63-58, over Marist.

Norwua Agho, who starred at St. Joseph's in Montvale, N.J., paced the Lions with 13 points, and Niko Scott and K.J. Matsui added 11 points apiece. Matsui was 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Columbia (4-7) outscored Marist (3-8) 34-27 after trailing 31-29 at the break.

"We ran into a wall around the nine-minute mark where we just couldn't put the ball in the basket," Marist coach Chuck Martin said. "It kind of hurt us. Obviously, that kid Matsui for Columbia did a great job knocking down three threes."

Ryan Schneider of Yorktown Heights, N.Y. led all scorers with 16 points for Marist. R.J. Hall added 13 and Kaylen Gregory 10.