Virginia Tech (3-6) played their best basketball of the season, but once again failed to put 40 minutes together in a 64-59 loss against No. 18 Pittsburgh (8-2).
On the bright side, the Hokies came closer to putting a full game together than they had all season long. In their five game skid, Tech has tended to play a decent first half before falling apart early in the second half. This time, they took a lead into halftime and actually held onto it until Jaland Lowe (19 points) gave the Panthers a one-point lead with 50 seconds remaining.
Virginia Tech led by as much as seven - a lead they took with just over five minutes remaining following Jaden Schutt’s fourth long ball - but the turning point was really in the last four minutes. Panthers leading scorer Ishmael Leggett knocked down a couple free throws to cut their deficit to five, but from then on Lowe took the game over. He scored 11 of Pitt’s last 13 points in the final 3:04 to help the Panthers avoid the upset.
Part of Pittsburgh’s comeback was their own strong play, but blame also has to be attributed to the Hokies and their turnover struggles, particularly late in the game.
“Really, really bad basketball. You’ve got to get it into the frontcourt,” Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young said of the Hokies inability to hang onto the ball and even set up their offense. “I’ve been doing it for a long time. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anything like that these last few games.”
Virginia Tech ended with 17 turnovers; a number that makes it nearly impossible to beat a strong team. Brandon Rechsteiner, in particular, recorded five turnovers and was unable to work the ball up the court with any consistency in the final 10 minutes. Despite the turnover troubles, the Hokies led for almost 31 minutes but couldn’t hang on when it mattered most.
“It’s an unforgiving game,” Young said of the close loss. “You could make the argument we deserved to win against a really good basketball team.”
Specifically in the first half, the Hokies shot better than they have in over a month. Tech knocked down 52% of their field goals and 40% of their three point shots. The Hokies entered the game knocking down just over six threes per game on the season. They drilled six long balls in just the first half.
Jaden Schutt (14 points) has come alive over the last couple of games, hitting nine threes in the last two games.
“I’m getting more comfortable every game,” Schutt said of his recent uptick in production.
Schutt suffered a knee injury during his time at Duke and is playing competitive basketball for the first time in over a year this season.
Schutt’s improved play has a chance to completely change this Hokies’ offense which has struggled without a number one scoring option this season. As Schutt’s reputation as a shooter grows, so will his gravity which already contributed to multiple easy buckets such as a slam for Tobi Lawal (team-high 16 points), when two defenders followed Schutt around an off-ball screen leading to an easy slip for Lawal.
Lawal, in his own right, played an excellent game bouncing back nicely from a quiet performance against Vanderbilt in which he got just 19 minutes of action. Lawal came out significantly more aggressive on the offensive end, putting his head down and scoring twice in just the first few minutes.
“(It was) probably his best game in a Hokie uniform,” Young said.
Lawal got extended minutes (27) partly because he got a chance to run the center position. Multiple times, Young experimented with a Ben Burnham, Tobi Lawal frontcourt which provides more versatility on the defensive end and perimeter skills on the offensive end than the Hokies have with Mylyjael Poteat or Patrick Wessler. Young said postgame that Lawal will likely see more minutes at the five as the season progresses, but also added he got that opportunity in part because Poteat was battling a sickness.
Despite the loss, the overall takeaway of the game is still somewhat positive. This is a team that hasn’t even looked like a competent basketball team at times this season, and they came out and gave the 18th ranked team a good game, albeit the Panthers are soon to drop out of the rankings after their embarrassing 33-point loss to Mississippi State.
Young has insisted he’s not giving up on this team and with that in mind this was a big step in the right direction. The Hokies have now shown the ability to hang with a solid basketball team. Now they have to figure out how to win some of these tight games.
“Let's continue to play better on Thursday,” Young said following the loss.
At 7 p.m. on Thursday, December 12th, the Hokies host North Carolina A&T. Virginia Tech will look to break their six-game skid and get their first win in a month against the Aggies.
