Despite four missed free throws in the final minute, Virginia Tech (10-12) defeated Virginia (10-12) 75-74 in an otherwise offensive masterclass, giving Mike Young his first win in Charlottesville as the Hokies’ head coach.
“We haven’t been good here (John Paul Jones Arena). UVA has a lot to do with that,” said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young following the game.
With 6:32 remaining, the Hokies had all but put the game away, holding a game-high 13 point lead after Jaden Schutt hit a turnaround mid-range (career-high 18 points).
Up to that point, the Hokies had put together arguably their best offensive performance of the season. Virginia Tech took care of the ball (seven turnovers), got to the free throw line (23 free throw attempts) and knocked down over half of their two-point and three point field goal, shooting 52% from the field and beyond the arc.
The Hokies could smell their first win in John Paul Jones Arena since 2018, but that’s when the Cavaliers made their run.
Virginia rattled off seven straight points over the next two and a half minutes, cutting the Hokies lead to 69-63.
Tobi Lawal was able to momentarily stop the bleeding with back to back strong finishes on interior postups, but UVA was firmly back in the game down 75-70 after two Isaac McKneely free throws with 59 seconds left.
It was at that moment, Ron Sanchez and Virginia opted for a unique strategy. Instead of playing out the defensive possession and letting Virginia Tech run down the clock to about 30 seconds, they decided to foul immediately upon the inbounds, sending Jaydon Young (seven points) to the stripe for a one and one.
Young missed the front end and Virginia marched down the floor getting an Andrew Rohde (12 points) hook shot which he made, cutting the lead to a single possession with 45 seconds left.
Again, instead of playing out the possession and trusting the defense to get a stop, the Cavaliers promptly fouled freshman point guard Ben Hammond (six points) with 41 ticks on the clock.
Just like Young, Hammond missed the free throw leading to a scramble for the rebound in which Lawal got whistled for a foul. His fourth personal sent Virginia sophomore center Blake Buchanan to the stripe for a one and one.
He too couldn’t get the free throw to fall and Virginia Tech secured the defensive rebound up 75-72 with 39 seconds remaining. This time, as the Hokies had entered the double bonus, Sanchez trusted his defense to get a stop, which is exactly what they did.
Then leading by three with less than 10 seconds remaining, Mike Young and the Hokies decided to intentionally foul rather than allow Virginia to fire away a game-tying three pointer, sending Isaac McKneely to the line.
McKneely nailed the pair, cutting the once comfortable Hokie lead to just one at 75-74. Virginia denied the guards on the inbounds, forcing Lawal to pass it into Mylyjael Poteat who got fouled with five seconds remaining.
Poteat missed both and Rohde pushed it up the court with a chance to win the game, got all the way to the cup and narrowly missed a runner off the glass at the buzzer.
“Without a timeout I’m not sure what else we could have done,” said Virginia head coach Ron Sanchez.
Just to get a shot to win the game at the buzzer was a miracle for the Wahoos, when not seven minutes earlier it was a 13 point game.
“The guys buckled down and got the stops we needed to get,” Sanchez said. “The crowd's energy was fantastic and really helped us down the stretch.”
It also didn’t hurt that the Hokies left six points at the line in the last minute alone.
Virginia Tech’s only consistent source of offense down the stretch was Lawal, who scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half, including two of the Hokies’ three buckets in the last three minutes.
Lawal’s second half takeovers are starting to become something of a trend for Virginia Tech. He has now led the Hokies in second half scoring in their last four games.
“My mentor told me ‘when everyone gets tired and when it comes down to the wire, that’s when you turn up’ so I just find ways to turn up,” Lawal said of his second half aggressiveness.
The only Hokie that joined Lawal in double figures was Schutt, who had perhaps the best game of his collegiate career.
Virginia Tech used Schutt in a similar way the Cavaliers used McKneely, sending him around off-ball screens to get him curling threes or open driving lanes. Schutt knocked down four of his treys and hit a couple fadeaway mid range jumpers. Jaydon Young and Ben Burnham each added two triples of their own, but Schutt separated himself as the lead perimeter threat in this particular game.
Perhaps the Hokies’ unsung hero from the Commonwealth Clash was Hammond and his work defensively against McKneely.
“We spent an inordinate amount of time on matchups,” Young said. “Who can guard who; who can’t guard who. I thought Ben Hammond did a remarkable job (on McKneely). Just a smaller, quicker person who can run with him and get on the outside shoulder and not get hit with those pindowns.”
After yet another crushing last-second loss, Virginia will look to bounce back at 7 p.m. on February 3 against the Pittsburgh Panthers. The Cavaliers find themselves in a perilous position where they are on the cusp of missing the newly-formatted ACC tournament if they don’t start winning games.
Virginia Tech, having now picked off two straight ACC teams on the road, looks to continue rolling in a test against the SMU Mustangs at 9 p.m. on February 5, back in Cassell Coliseum.
