5 takeaways from Virginia Tech men's basketball rout of Georgia Tech

The case can be made that the Virginia Tech men's basketball team is peaking at the right time. Fresh off of a pair of wins over North Carolina State on the road and Boston College at home, the Hokies made it three in a row Saturday night with an ACC win over Georgia Tech.

Along with contributions from their guards, Virginia Tech got strong games from their two inside presences, Lynn Kidd and Mylyjael Poteat who combined for over 30 points against the Yellow Jackets. Here are some observations after Virginia Tech improved to 13-7 overall and 5-4 in the ACC.

Observations from Virginia Tech's win over Georgia Tech

* What a night for Poteat off the bench. He had 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting and went a perfect 6-for-6 from the free throw line. He had two huge blocks in the first half on back-to-back possessions and finished with six rebounds. If the Hokies can continue to get that from him, what a huge lift off the bench he can be in the second half of ACC play.

* Not to be outdone, Kidd finished with 18 points himself on 7-of-9 shooting and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. That's a combined 36 points on 13-for-18 shooting from the field and 10-for-10 from the line for Virginia Tech's two bigs. They can be game-changers going forward.

* Mike Young talked about helping Sean Pedulla out handling the ball after he went through a stretch of a lot of turnovers, but against Georgia Tech, the junior only had one turnover and five assists with nine points. He did a good job of getting downhill offensively and that opened easy dunks for Poteat and Kidd. For the game, the Hokies had 23 assists on 32 field goals. Not too shabby.

* Hunter Cattoor only had 11 points, but he finished with five assists and four defensive rebounds for the Hokies. He was 3-for-6 from behind the arc and played his usual strong defense.

* Virginia Tech placed five players in double figures and along with Cattoor, Poteat, and Kidd, Robbie Beran and Tyler Nickel also hit double figures. Beran had 14 points and nine rebounds and Nickel had 11 on three 3-pointers.

Virginia Tech is in a position where they have creeped their way into the NCAA Tournament discussion and they have a big opportunity to get a very resume win Monday night when Duke comes to Cassell Coliseum. This is the biggest game so far in 2023-24 for the Hokies.