With just under four minutes remaining on Saturday afternoon, things were not looking good for Mike Young and Virginia Tech's men's basketball team. Trailing visiting Miami by six points, it was setting up to be another frustrating ending. Until it wasn't.
The Hokies closed the game on a 10-3 run and rallied from an 82-76 deficit to beat the Hurricanes, 86-85, on a Mylyjael Poteat three-point play with 2.7 seconds left. After picking up their first ACC win of 2024-25, here are two truths and a lie for Virginia Tech.
Truth: Mylyjael Poteat outplayed Lynn Kidd
Miami coming to Blacksburg meant the return of former Hokie Lynn Kidd who joined the Hurricanes last spring in the transfer portal. Going up against his former teammate Poteat, the two went toe-to-toe for nearly 30 minutes. In the end, the Hokies center got the best of his friend.
Poteat's three-point play was his 23rd, 24th, and 25th points of the afternoon to go along with three rebounds. On the flip side, Kidd looked uncomfortable during the game and had seven points and eight rebounds. The two will battle again at the end of February in South Florida.
Truth: Virginia Tech got defensive stops when needed
This season has seen multiple games where the Hokies failed to get stops on the defensive end in the second half which led to losses. Two games that come to mind first are losses at home to Jacksonville and Pittsburgh. They were not going to let it happen again Saturday.
Trailing 85-83 with 40 seconds left, the Hokies got one final stop when Jaden Schutt played perfect defense on Miami's Jalil Bethea and forced him into a tough foul line jumper that he missed. That stop set the stage for Poteat's three-point play to win the game. There were multiple stops before the possession where Tech was able to get a stop.
Lie: Virginia Tech can win the way they did on Saturday
A win is a win for a team that hasn't had one against a power conference school until Saturday, but that was not the recipe for the Hokies to have success the rest of the season. Allowing 85 points a game is not going to win many, if any more games this season. They need to be better defensively and take care of the ball better. They were lucky Miami was as bad as they were at both during the game.