What was on its way to a textbook road conference win took a scary turn down the stretch, but Virginia Tech defeated the Virginia Cavaliers 75-74 in the 159th meeting between the two rivals. Virginia was a last second Taine Murray layup away from stealing one, but the shot couldn't find the bottom of the net, letting Tech fans breathe a sigh of relief.
Jaden Schutt scored 10 of the Hokies' first 15 points on his way to a game-high and career-high 18 points. After a quiet first half hampered by foul trouble, Tobi Lawal scored 12 second-half points on his way to 17.
The first half was fairly well played on both ends, with the teams combining for only six turnovers. The Cavaliers were dealt a blow early when forward Blake Buchanan picked up his third foul with 9:33 remaining in the first half. In the end, Tech was more efficient, shooting 5-for-9 from beyond the arc (55.6%) to Virginia's 5-for-13 (38.5%) and closing the half with their largest lead to that point, 38-31.
After intermission, Virginia made several attempts to cut into Tech's lead, but the Hokies answered each time. Until the final harried minutes, the biggest threat was a mini-run by Virginia that cut the lead to two with 14:50 remaining. Three-pointers by Jaydon Young, Ben Burnham, and Brandon Rechsteiner stopped the bleeding and pushed the lead back to nine two minutes later.
what a dime by BRoc 🤝
— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) February 1, 2025
he followed this with a 3 of his own btw
📺 ACCN pic.twitter.com/RnughHxQZI
The Hokies extended their lead to 13, quieting the John Paul Jones Arena crowd, but they couldn't slam the door shut. After having little trouble scoring against the Wahoos for most of the game, Tech tightened up at the end. Young and Ben Hammond both missed front ends of one-and-ones with under a minute remaining and Mylyjael Poteat missed two free throws with 5.9 seconds remaining to set up Virginia's last opportunity.
Tech shot just 5-for-13 from the line in the second half after a 9-for-10 effort in the first. The Hokies finished shooting 52.1% from the field and 52.4% from three. Virginia was 48.1% and 34.8%, respectively.
Tally it up, though, and the team that many thought might not win more than a couple of ACC games has now won five and is up to ninth in the ACC standings. The Hokies host SMU in their first-ever ACC matchup at 9 pm ET on Wednesday.