Virginia Tech's men's basketball team dug holes for itself in both halves Saturday against Virginia. Both times, they made a run. Neither time was it enough. Tech dropped a 73-70 heartbreaker to Virginia in a Commonwealth Clash game Saturday afternoon at Cassell Coliseum. The loss broke a four game home winning streak against Virginia.
For most of the first half, Virginia looked most comfortable in their offense, while Tech looked hesitant and struggled to find easy shots. In fact, the Hokies found little success outside of Tobi Lawal, who scored 16 of the Hokies' first 21 points and ended the half with 19 points and five rebounds. No other Hokie had more than three points in the first half.
The Cavaliers threatened to run away with it, taking a 32-17 with 6:38 remaining. But Tech battled back and Tyler Johnson's layup with 28 seconds left capped a 16-5 run to pull them within four. Elijah Saunders drilled a three at the buzzer to give Virginia a 40-33 lead going into the break. Some jawing started by Saunders after his made shot led to more jawing as the teams headed for their locker rooms. Ultimately, four technical fouls were called after the buzzer; two on Tech and two on Virginia.
Though Virginia had a hard time handling Lawal's athleticism in the first half, they kept him largely quiet in the second. Meanwhile, Isaac McKneely was doing his best Steph Curry impersonation, nailing six threes in the game, most of them second half daggers in key possessions.
Lawal's teammates eventually picked up the slack. Jaydon Young bailed out Virginia Tech on two consecutive possessions with long threes at the shot clock buzzer. Freshman guard Ben Hammond scored all 11 of his points in the second half and was a real spark plug. Tyler Johnson, Ben Burnham, and Brandon Rechsteiner all had big buckets in the second half as well.
Tech kept chipping away throughout the latter part of the game, weathering big McKneely threes on the other end, and cutting the Cavaliers' lead to as little as one. But in the end, it wasn't quite enough. Rechsteiner missed a three to tie it during a clumsy possession and Burnham missed a three to tie at the end.
Tech wasn't sharp enough on offense. They were out-rebounded by the conference's worst rebounding team. And they struggled to defend the three-point shooting of McKneely. The loss drops the Hokies to 6-8 in the ACC, tied with several teams including Virginia. Lawal led all scorers with 23 (just four in the second half). McKneely paced Virginia with 22.
Tech doesn't have long to lick its wounds. They hit the hardwood Tuesday night on the road at Conte Forum against Boston College. The Eagles are 10-15 overall and tied for last at 2-12 in the ACC.