Virginia Tech Basketball: Hokies Suffer Embarrassing Loss to Jacksonville

With all the turnover that the Virginia Tech men's basketball team went through after the 2023-24 season, you knew there would be some early stinkers from Mike Young's team. You just thought that they would come once ACC play began.

After losing 86-64 to Penn State Friday night in the Hall of Fame Series in Baltimore, the Hokies returned home to Cassell Coliseum Wednesday night to host Jacksonville in the campus round of the Fort Myers Tip-Off which continues next week in Florida.

Leading 39-29 at halftime, the Dolphins came out in the second half and turned up the defensive pressure, forced turnovers, shot the ball great from the floor, and just steamrolled Virginia Tech in their home arena to the tune of a, 74-64, victory. The loss drops the Hokies to 3-2.

Virginia Tech has had trouble handling the ball this season and the more athletic and opportunistic Dolphins made them pay, especially in the second half. The tone was set in the first minute when they had a three-point play and then forced a turnover on the inbounds pass, which led to a 3-pointer. From there. everything went south for Young's team.

Jacksonville, which was picked to finish 5th in the ASUN this season, got whatever they wanted in the second half. They were able to get to the basket and did a nice job of finishing, while stepping into their shots from behind the arc and hitting four 3-pointers. How bad was it for the Hokies? Jakari Spence for Jacksonville hit his first 3-pointer of the season without hesitation.

Mylyjael Poteat finished with 15 points and eight rebounds to lead Virginia Tech. Toibu Lawal had 14 and Brandon Rechsteiner had 11. The Hokies were 12-for-20 from the free throw line and finished with 16 turnovers, which seemed low.

The win was the first against Jacksonville against a Power 4 conference team since 2010 when they beat the Florida Gators. For the Hokies, the loss snapped a 24-game non-conference winning streak at home.