Nickeil Alexander-Walker led four players in double figures with 19 points as No. 15 Virginia Tech heated up following a slow start to rout South Carolina State 81-44 on Sunday at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, Va.

Justin Robinson added 16 for the Hokies (8-1), which canned 9-of-15 3-pointers in the second half to finally gain separation from the scrappy Bulldogs (2-9). Kerry Blackshear chipped in a 12-point, 13-rebound double-double while also recording five assists, and Ahmed Hill scored 10 points.

Damni Applewhite's 10 points was good enough to lead South Carolina State, which simply couldn't make enough shots to keep pace with Virginia Tech. The Bulldogs canned just 34 percent from the field and also committed 19 turnovers.

The early storyline was Winter Storm Diego, which dumped about a foot of snow in Blacksburg and led Virginia Tech officials to let fans in the building for free. For most of the first half, the Hokies looked like they were trying to hit a shot in the snow.

South Carolina State scored the first six points and still held a 9-8 edge at the halfway point of the first half. At that point, Virginia Tech finally got its offense going. Hill's layup at the 9:59 mark put the Hokies ahead for good at 10-9.

It was still a four-point game when the Bulldogs' Ozante Fields sank a jumper with 5:32 left in the half. But Virginia Tech ended the half with a 14-7 spurt, Robinson closing it out with a layup that gave it a 34-23 advantage at intermission.

Any suspense was ended with a 14-2 run over the first 4:24 of the second half. Alexander-Walker had a hand in the last eight points of the spurt, sandwiching a 2-pointer and a 3-pointer around an assist on a Blackshear 3-ball that made it 48-25 before the under-16 timeout.

The Hokies sank 48.3 percent of their shots for the day, going 18-of-29 in the second half, and owned a 39-28 advantage on the boards.

--Field Level Media