In a tale of two halves, Virginia Tech (15-6, 4-4 ACC) fell on the road to No. 23 Louisville (14-5, 4-3 ACC) on Saturday.
After going down by 20 points early in the second half, but ultimately couldn't overcome their slow start.
After a sloppy first few minutes that saw both teams miss plenty of shots, Louisville settled in and opened the lead, but couldn't pull away completely, thanks in part to Jailen Bedford's shotmaking ability. He paced the Hokies on the offensive end of the floor with 24 points on the day on 8-for-15 (53%) shooting, including going 6-for-8 (75%) from beyond the arc.
After the final media timeout of the half, the Cardinals started to pull away. J'Vonne Handley converted an and-one layup that kickstarted a 18-5 run to close out the first half.
Virginia Tech went into halftime trailing 37-22 after struggling to get anything going offensively; starters Ben Hammond, Christian Gurdak, Amani Hansberry, and Neoklis Avdalas combined for 8 points. The Hokies as a team shot 8-for-33 (24%) in the first 20 minutes.
Coming out of the break, the Cardinals' star freshman Mikel Brown Jr., who hadn't played on December 13 due to a back injury, got into a rhythm to help widen Louisville's advantage; Brown led all Cardinals with 20 points on 7-for-11 (64%) shooting from the field. Louisville led 49-29 at the 14:24 mark.
Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young called a timeout with 12:53 remaining with his team down 53-35. The Hokies finally found a pulse on the offensive end and outscored theirs hosts 36-32 the rest of the way.
At one point during this stretch, the Hokies made 10 of 11 shots from the floor. Amani Hansberry finally got going with three three-pointers of his own, as did Jaden Schutt, who went 3-for-5 from deep. Virginia Tech also stepped up its effort on defense, forcing 15 on the day.
The Hokies finally cut the deficit to eight after a Hansberry made his second three-pointer in 30 seconds made it a 64-56 game 7:22 remaining. Virginia Tech never cut into the lead further, though, as Louisville put together a game-sealing 12-2 run punctuated by a Ryan Conwell four-point play that pushed the Cardinals' lead to at the 5:11 mark.
In total, the Hokies went 17-for-29 (59%) in the second half, including a blistering 11-for-17 mark (65%) from three-point range that contributed to a season-high 16-for-30 (53%) shooting performance from beyond the arc.
Virginia Tech's much more efficient offensive output in the final 20 minutes couldn't prevent the Cardinals from extending their lead on the other end, however. Bedford led Virginia Tech in scoring, while Ben Hammond contributed 18 points of his own on 6-for-11 (55%) shooting, including 4-for-5 (80%) from three. Amani Hansberry scored 11 of his 12 points in the second half.
Notably, Avdalas, Gurdak, and Tobi Lawal combined for six points on 3-for-16 (19%) shooting from the field. Avdalas went 1-for-8 from the field and did not play in the final 9:53 of the game. Gurdak was limited to just one shot attempt all game. Lawal scored two points after making just one of seven shot attempts, but he brought down 9 rebounds and recorded five blocks.
Virginia Tech returns to action against Georgia Tech at Cassell Coliseum on Tuesday, January 27 at 8:00 pm.
