With 8:45 left on the clock, a JJ Starling layup put Syracuse up 69-56 in a game they had controlled all the way to that point.
Over the following eight minutes and 40 seconds, the Hokies rattled off a 26-9 run, spearheaded by Jaydon Young who scored 10 in that stretch.
With four seconds to spare, Jaden Schutt went to the line as the Hokies held a narrow 81-79 lead. Schutt missed the first free throw, and nailed the second. After a 30 second timeout, the Orange inbounded it to Jaquan Carlos who sped up the court and drained a pull-up three right before the buzzer sounded.
Carlos’ three sent the game to overtime, in a peculiar final possession where the Hokies opted not to intentionally foul despite the apparent wishes of Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young who told them otherwise during the timeout. Nonetheless, Young took the blame for the miscommunication.
“Without getting too technical, it’s my fault,” Young said. “We’re supposed to be connected and it was not well executed. That’s on me.”
Despite the late game breakdown, the Hokies regrouped in the overtime period, knocking down five of their seven shots and all seven free throw attempts.
Virginia Tech (13-16, 8-10) outlasted Syracuse (12-17, 6-12) 101-95, and for the time being, climb up to ninth in the ACC standings with just two regular season games to go.
The Hokies lit up the scoreboard, knocking down 61% of their shots, 42% of their threes and 83% of their free throws. Better yet, Virginia Tech cleaned up their turnover woes, giving it away just 10 times after a “miserable” 22-turnover game against Louisville.
Regardless of the hot shooting and the additional five minutes, 101 points is quite a figure.
It is the most points Virginia Tech has scored in the Mike Young era. It was the first time three Hokies (Jaydon Young, Ben Hammond, Jaden Schutt) scored at least 20 points in a single game since 2018. Even more staggering, this performance comes on the heels of a historically bad 36-point effort at Boston College less than two weeks ago.
The Hokies could have been discouraged after the beatdown at the hands of Boston College on February 18th. They could have gotten discouraged when trailing by 13 with under 10 minutes left against Syracuse. They could have hung their heads after a late-game defensive blunder erased their furious rally.
The Hokies gave up at none of these difficult moments.
“(They) had a chance to drop their heads and pout and feel sorry for themselves,” Young commented. “They don’t do that. They’re going to do some things that drive me up a tree but they continue to fight.”
After resetting mentally, Virginia Tech prepared for the overtime period essentially thinking of it as a new game.
“Every day in practice we do this thing called four minute games,” sophomore guard Jaydon Young commented.
This mental drill trains them how to put all of their effort into one short timeframe of action and prepares them for late game scenarios. While they didn’t come through down the stretch against Louisville, their overtime performance against Syracuse was nothing short of fantastic.
While the Hokies got production all across the board, Jaydon Young was the catalyst to both the comeback and the takeover in overtime.
“He just looks so comfortable and explosive,” Mike Young said.
Young had 26 points - one point shy of his career-high 27 points, which he set exactly one week ago against Miami. Young has always shown flashes of elite scoring talent, but his game is now beginning to come together.
Fellow 20+ point scorers and usual starters, Ben Hammond and Jaden Schutt, provided much-needed sparks off the bench after the team’s slow start. Schutt (career-high 20 points) kept the Hokies in the game in the first half, as it was threatening to get out of hand, while Hammond (career-high 21 points) did much of his work in the mid-range working off of pick and rolls.
Hammond played the best game of his collegiate career, leading the team in assists (7), rebounds (7), steals (3) and hitting seven of his eight shot attempts. He finished with a +18 plus/minus in his 33 minutes of action. No one else finished with a plus/minus above +6.
After the game, Mike Young had nothing but praise for Hammond and fellow standout freshman Tyler Johnson (10 points), and their development throughout the season.
“They’re not freshmen any more,” Young said. “They’ve played a lot of basketball. There's been some peaks and valleys, but I couldn't be more excited about where they’ve been and their improvement throughout the year.”
The final double-figure scorer was Mylyjael Poteat, who made timely jump-hooks and improved his defense on Syracuse center Eddie Lampkin in the second half.
Poteat has been battling through a knee injury, which gave him a tough time at practice yesterday, but he battled through it and gave Young more minutes (25) than he was expected to play.
Virginia Tech needed this win to buy themselves even a chance of first round bye in the ACC tournament, and they couldn’t have gotten the win in a more dramatic way.
Syracuse, now down to 14th place in the ACC standings, fly to Texas for a 9 p.m. duel with the SMU Mustangs on Tuesday, March 4th.
Virginia Tech stays in Blacksburg for their home finale at 7 p.m on Tuesday March 4th as they host the North Carolina Tar Heels.
