Virginia Tech Drops Fifth Straight, Loses To Vanderbilt In SEC/ACC Challenge

Raza Umerani

Editor-in-Chief

December 4, 2024

BLACKSBURG — With a poor showing on both ends of the floor, Virginia Tech lost its fifth straight game on Wednesday night, falling 80-64 to Vanderbilt in the SEC/ACC Challenge.

The Commodores (8-1) quickly turned a two-point game into a contest out of the reach of the Hokies (3-5) with an extended 29-14 second-half run powered by solid shooting and better defense — a trend that has already plagued Tech on several occasions in this young season. 

“There's that tipping point in the second half,” Tech head coach Mike Young said after the game. “We saw it against South Carolina. We saw it against Michigan. We saw it in here again tonight — turnovers and bad shots as much as anything will lead to run outs from the opposing team, and Vanderbilt did it in here tonight.”

Poor offense was the name of the game for the Hokies, shooting a drab 23-for-60 (38.3%) from the floor and a ghastly 8-for-29 (27.6%) from beyond the arc. All the while, they committed 15 turnovers — seven in the first half and eight in the second — often looking lost on offense and giving away easy fastbreak opportunities; Vandy cashed in for 28 points off takeaways. On several occasions, VT looked simply lost on that end of the floor, not getting into sets and playing careless, abstract basketball.

Former Hokie turned Commodore guard MJ Collins poured in 15 points, all of which came in the first half, highlighted by a personal 11-0 run to help pad Vanderbilt’s lead to double digits early on. Despite being held scoreless in the final 20 minutes, his presence was felt in his return to Blacksburg.

“I meant a lot,” Collins said. “It was a focal point for our teammates. We talked about it, that this was personal for me and [Tyler Nickel] and they had our backs out there. So I'm always thankful for my teammates and my coaching staff, for believing in us. I told them that this was going to be a hard game to win on the road, because it's hard to win in Cassell. Of course, I was on the other side of it, but, you know, it really meant a lot.”

Nickel, who played the 2023-24 season for Tech after a one-year stint at North Carolina, chipped in with six points, though he missed all four of his three-point attempts.

Jaden Schutt led the way for the Hokies with 15 points, all of which via the three-ball; the Duke transfer shot 5-of-11 from distance while the rest of the team combined to go 3-of-18. Mylyjael Poteat chimed in with 14 points and a game-high seven rebounds while Ben Burnham was a pleasant surprise of a bright spot with 10 points, six rebounds and four assists — all of which were season highs. 

Despite shooting a mere 31.4% from the field while Vandy shot it at a 51.7% clip in the first half, Tech only found itself down five at halftime by finding timely buckets and executing well enough defensively to stay afloat.

That trend continued early in the second half, when a Tyler Johnson layup made it 45-43 with just over four minutes gone.

But, from that point on, the Hokies lost their grip on things. They missed their next six field goal attempts — five of which came from beyond the arc — couldn’t hit on a pair of free throws and committed two turnovers in a four-minute span. 

Meanwhile, the Commodores found their stroke, hitting three of their next four shots to open the game back up to double digits. From there, they never looked back with the lead staying at eight or above for the remainder of the contest.

“I think they really just got into us,” Poteat said. “Forced some turnovers there. We definitely had some untimely turnovers that allowed them to get some of the guys in rhythm. I thought we were defending solidly in the half court at times.

“They were just blowing up a lot of our stuff on offense. We weren’t really running our offense with the polish that we needed.” 

The Hokies have lost by an average of 14 points in this skid, with each loss coming by at least 10 points to a non-conference foe. It’s the first time Tech has lost five straight games by double digits since 2002-03 and the first time it has lost five consecutive non-conference games since a century (1923-24). 

“It obviously sucks, losing,” Poteat said. “But I think there's stretches where we play well. And if we could put together a 40 minute game with some of the stuff we're doing, I think we'll be fine.

“Going into the season, we knew there were going to be growing pains. We got a whole new team of guys, a lot of those guys being young guys. A lot of those guys don't have a lot of experience, so it's tough implementing a lot of guys into a new offense. We’ve just got to get together on the offensive and defensive ends.”

Next up is Tech’s first ACC game of the year: a home contest against stingy No. 18 Pitt (7-2) on Saturday afternoon (2 p.m. ET, ACC Network). The Hokies still have a lot to figure out and are searching for answers, and those answers are probably not going to come in the next three days.

The question now becomes, are they going to come at all? And if so, when? 

“We're gonna figure it out,” Young said. “I really like this group. They work really hard. We're gonna figure it out. I believe in this team. I’ve got to do a better job with them.”