BLACKSBURG -- A cake waited for Virginia Tech's players in the locker room after last night's first-round National Invitation Tournament game against Morgan State.

"Congratulations for a great season," the icing read -- a nice, albeit oddly timed gesture.

Because the Hokies proved over the previous two hours that their season is far from done. Neither they nor their fans seemed sour about missing the NCAA tournament, and the Hokies matched the energy of the 9,628 people who nearly filled Cassell Coliseum by beating Morgan State 94-62 -- Tech's largest margin of victory ever in a postseason game.

With the pressure of making the NCAAs gone, the Hokies (20-13) looked appropriately relaxed. They shot a season-best 65.4 percent, including a school-record 82.6 percent in the second half, during which they made their first 15 shots. Junior guard A.D. Vassallo tied his season high with 27 points and shot 11 of 14 and 3 of 5 on 3-pointers, one of which he punctuated by gleefully sticking out his tongue as he ran back down the court.

"I think we are playing much more loose than we were before," senior forward Deron Washington said.

They host Alabama-Birmingham in a second-round game Monday. The time will be announced today. Tech coach Seth Greenberg again plans to chip in money -- and get several boosters to do the same -- so the first 3,000 students get in free. His benevolence created a raucous atmosphere last night, as most of the fans stayed until the final buzzer to congratulate Greenberg on his 300th career win. "Thank you Green-berg!" they chanted.

Before the game, he grabbed a green marker and scrawled "JUST PLAY BALL!!!" atop the locker-room whiteboard. He adopted the message before the ACC tournament, trying to keep his team focused on its next game, rather than speculation about its chances of making the NCAAs.

The Hokies have listened. They rebounded from the NCAA selection committee's rejection by having, Vassallo said, "the two best practices we'd had in a while" before last night's game. "They're as good a group as I've ever been around in terms of staying in the present and just working at it," Greenberg said.

"I think we're just happy to be playing," freshman point guard Malcolm Delaney said. "We probably weren't predicted to be in the NCAA tournament, so I think when we didn't get picked, our team didn't get our heads down."

None of the Hokies played freer last night than Vassallo, who shot 7 of 10 in the first half and had 19 points at halftime.

"Tonight A.D. really looked like an NBA prospect to me," freshman point guard Hank Thorns said.

Vassallo last night wore athletic tape on his left (non-shooting) wrist and hand -- a precautionary measure in response to recent soreness, he said.

"The whole team will be wearing them on Monday," Greenberg joked.

Vassallo scored his 27th point, two shy of his career high, with 12:10 left in the game, increasing Tech's lead to 59-39. But Greenberg pulled him a minute later and sat him for the rest of the game. No big deal, Vassallo said. He'd rather get a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final Four anyway.

"I've still got one year left, so there's plenty of time for all that," he said. "As long as we're winning and we keep on moving on, if we can go to New York and keep on playing and miss a couple days of class, we're good."

MORGAN STATE (22-11)	M	FG	FT	R	A	PF	Pt
Coly-------------------------	36	5-9	1-2	6	1	3	11
Kately-------------------------	34	10-16	0-4	4	4	1	21
Stokes-------------------------	8	0-1	0-0	0	0	2	0
Green-------------------------	27	2-5	2-4	0	3	3	6
Holmes-------------------------	33	2-8	2-2	2	1	4	8
Johnson-------------------------	2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0
Bolden-------------------------	18	4-8	0-0	1	2	3	10
Barnes-------------------------	12	0-1	0-0	0	0	3	0
Aujla-------------------------	10	0-3	0-0	3	0	1	0
Smith-------------------------	18	3-9	0-0	1	1	0	6
Hemsley-------------------------	2	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0
Team				4
Totals -------------------------		26-60	5-12	21	12	20	62

VIRGINIA TECH (20-13)

	M	FG	FT	R	A	PF	Pt
Allen-------------------------	26	3-6	4-5	3	3	3	10
Washington-------------------------	29	3-4	5-6	9	5	2	11
Witcher-------------------------	9	2-2	0-0	1	0	2	4
Vassallo-------------------------	25	11-14	2-2	1	3	0	27
Delaney-------------------------	23	5-8	0-0	3	1	0	13
Bell-------------------------	15	2-3	0-1	1	3	0	5
Hudson-------------------------	16	3-4	0-0	4	0	0	6
Amalfe-------------------------	2	1-1	0-0	1	0	0	2
Travis-------------------------	4	0-0	0-0	1	0	0	0
Thorns-------------------------	16	1-3	2-2	1	3	1	5
Vinson-------------------------	2	0-1	0-0	1	0	0	0
Debnam-------------------------	2	0-1	2-2	1	0	0	2
Thompson-------------------------	22	3-4	3-4	3	0	1	9
Diakite-------------------------	9	0-1	0-0	2	0	1	0
Team				3
Totals -------------------------		34-52	18-22	35	18	10	94

Morgan State ------------------------- 25 37 -- 62
Virginia Tech ------------------------- 40 54 -- 94

3-point goals -- Morgan State (5-21): Bolden 2-4, Holmes 2-5, Kately 1-3, Barnes 0-1, Green 0-2, Smith 0-3, Aujla 0-3. Virginia Tech (8-14): Delaney 3-4, Vassallo 3-5, Thorns 1-2, Bell 1-2, Allen 0-1.

Turnovers -- Morgan State (10): Coly 3, Bolden 3, Green 2, Kately 2. Virginia Tech (12): Hudson 3, Allen 3, Delaney 2, Washington 2, Travis, Vinson.

Blocked shots -- Morgan State (3): Coly, Hemsley, Aujla. Virginia Tech (5): Allen 3, Debnam, Thorns.

Steals -- Morgan State (4): Kately 2, Bolden, Holmes. Virginia Tech (8): Allen 3, Hudson 2, Thorns, Washington, Thompson.

A -- 9,628.