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RALEIGH (AP) — Shots were falling and the defense was solid. In the opening 10 minutes, Virginia Tech could do no wrong.

And the last thing Malcolm Delaney cared about was the score.

"People weren't really looking at the score, we were so into the game that by the time we looked up, we were like, 'Wow, we got a good lead,'" he said.

That they did.

Dorenzo Hudson scored 23 points, Jeff Allen had 14 and Virginia Tech jumped on N.C. State early during a 72-52 victory on Wednesday night.

"I just knew, and our team knew, that we had to come out on fire," Hudson said. "We had to come out with high energy, especially at the start, and I think we did that. We were getting stops and getting out in transition, and that led to some easy baskets for us."

Delaney was held to 15 points, about five below his team-leading average, but it hardly mattered as the Hokies (19-4, 6-3 ACC) won for the seventh time in nine games. JT Thompson added 12 points.

"I was a little concerned early, particularly because it was so easy early," Virginia Tech coach Seth Greenberg said. "It was so easy early that sometimes you lose focus, and we did offensively. We took some bad shots, we rushed a little bit."

Virginia Tech made its first 10 shots and sprinted to a 26-7 lead, with Thompson finishing off the spurt with consecutive layups. On the first, he simply beat the defense down the court and accepted a pass underneath the basket, leading to a chorus of boos from the home crowd.

N.C. State coach Sidney Lowe noticed, and let his team know about it after the game.

"He said we were embarrassing," guard Scott Wood said. "When you hear boos from your home crowd halfway through the first half, you know you're in trouble."

When meeting with the media afterward, Lowe downplayed his comments, insisting it was a message meant only for the team.

"That was for our locker room," he said. "I wasn't talking about being embarrassed for our team. We talked about that for our team."

The Wolfpack (14-11, 2-8) rallied behind Dennis Horner. He had a career-high 16 rebounds to go with 13 points, including a putback early in the second half to bring N.C. State within 38-31.

But Delaney responded on the other end with a 3-pointer to begin a 11-1 run for the Hokies, effectively sealing the game.

"I thought the 3 he made on the side out-of-bounds play was probably a pivotal play for us," Greenberg said of Delaney's shot. "We kind of were a little bit out of rhythm. That kind of got us going again."

Tracy Smith, the Wolfpack's leading scorer at nearly 18 points a game, had only 12 on 4 of 12 shooting while suffering from a stomach ailment. He received intravenous fluids at halftime and spent the waning moments of the second half with a trash can between his legs on the end of the bench before departing early for the locker room.

N.C. State lost for the fifth time in six games and was held without a 3-pointer for the first time since March 4, 1989, a span of 654 games. It missed all 11 shots from beyond the arc.

VIRGINIA TECH (19-4) — Allen 5-7 4-5 14, Bell 1-1 0-0 2, Hudson 9-13 3-6 23, Davila 1-6 0-0 2, Delaney 4-10 6-7 15, Raines 0-1 0-0 0, Green 1-3 0-0 2, Witcher 0-0 2-2 2, Boggs 0-2 0-0 0, Atkins 0-0 0-0 0, Debnam 0-0 0-0 0, Thompson 6-8 0-0 12. Totals 27-51 15-20 72.

N.C. STATE (14-11) — Gonzalez 1-8 0-0 2, Wood 1-7 2-2 4, Davis 5-9 2-5 12, T.Smith 4-12 4-6 12, Horner 6-15 1-3 13, Howell 0-1 1-2 1, Painter 2-4 0-0 4, Degand 0-4 2-2 2, Vandenberg 1-2 0-0 2, Williams 0-3 0-0 0, Mays 0-4 0-0 0, Thomas 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-70 12-20 52.

Halftime—Virginia Tech 34-23.
3-point goals—Virginia Tech 3-7 (Hudson 2-4, Delaney 1-3), N.C. State 0-11 (Gonzalez 0-2, Horner 0-2, Wood 0-2, Mays 0-2, Degand 0-3).
Fouled out—None.
Rebounds—Virginia Tech 37 (Allen 8), N.C. State 45 (Horner 16).
Assists—Virginia Tech 13 (Delaney 5), N.C. State 7 (Wood 3).
Total fouls—Virginia Tech 19, N.C. State 17.
A—14,024.