Jaydon Young’s career night paced the Hokies in their 81-68 victory on Saturday night at Miami.
Virginia Tech (12-15, 7-9 ACC) bounced back from Tuesday’s defeat at Boston College with a solid all-around performance against the Hurricanes (6-21, 2-14), who were without leading scorer Matthew Cleveland due to injury.
“The ball moved again, we had good player movement,” Tech head coach Mike Young said. “Jaydon Young was very, very good. I think a season-low five turnovers, and all of those were in the first half. Eighteen assists and five turnovers. That’s what we’ve been accustomed to with our teams, not this one. Happy with our team’s play. Thought the kids played very well.”
It was an even first half that saw Tech shoot 53.3 percent to the Canes’ 53.8 percent. Tobi Lawal scored the Hokies’ first seven points while Lynn Kidd had five of Miami’s first nine. However, those two went quiet for a while.
Instead, it was a balanced effort from others. Patrick Wessler and Jaydon Young were Tech’s leading scorers at intermission with eight points apiece. On the other side, A.J. Staton-McCray had 12.
Knotted up at 38 at the break, the Hokies were better in the second half and gradually pulled away — despite losing Mylyjael Poteat with an injury. The veteran forward suffered a knee injury with 3:01 remaining in the first half and did not return, though his head coach shared some encouraging words after the game.
“We think we’re OK,” Young said of Poteat. “He was sore and hurting was the reason we didn’t consider going back with him. Structurally he’s fine. I’ll know more tomorrow when we get him back home and see how it responds overnight. [Hokies assistant AD for sports medicine] Hisham [Ziyout] has told me worst-case scenario [Poteat] is on the shelf for a couple of days. I don’t think it’s going to be anything substantial, I really don’t. We’re thankful for that.”
Wessler was huge in his stead. He had one of the best games of his career, a 10-point, five-rebound outing on 5-of-6 shooting. At the other end, he helped take Kidd out of the game. Though the former Hokie was 5-of-5 and had 16 points and nine boards, he was on an island of sorts and only attempted two second-half field goals.
“Great basketball game,” Young said of Wessler. “Ten points, I thought he handled himself well. … He helped our team win. We needed somebody to step up to the plate.”
While Wessler held it down inside, Jaydon Young took over on the perimeter. Though he had only scored in double figures once in the previous 20 games dating back to the start of December, he nearly doubled his career-high output — 14 points set on Jan. 11 at Cal — as he exploded in the second half.
“Really just my teammates, my coaches keeping confidence in me,” Young said. “Telling me to keep working on my shot. … After I hit the first [three], I didn’t really look at too much besides the rim.”
Trailing 48-42 at the 15:14 mark in the second half — Miami’s largest lead of the day — Ben Burnham knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to get Virginia Tech going. He complemented Wessler and Young well with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from deep and six rebounds.
Burnham’s two triples tied things at 48 and set the table for Young, who knocked down a three with 13:18 remaining and gave the Hokies the lead for good. Though Miami called timeout to try and stop the visitor’s 9-0 run, Young surged forward and carved his way to the rack with a layup. Burnham tacked on a hook shot to cap off a 13-0 spurt and put Tech up 55-48 at the 10:45 mark.
The Canes didn’t have an answer after that. Young knocked down two other triples, a layup and four free throws as Tech shot 51.6 percent in the second half — and 52.5 percent for the game — and pulled away. Miami was just 10-of-26 (38.5%) from the field over the same span.
“I think we just did a good job of being physical with [Kidd],” Wessler said of Tech’s defense. “Of course, he’s a good player, everybody knows that, but nobody likes when they’re just getting hit over and over again, so I think we were just relentless on him and we wore him down as the game went on.”
Young finished with a career-high 27 as he made nine of his 15 field goals, including five of his 11 from long range, and all four of his foul shots. He’s given the Hokies a lift in some big moments this year, like their road victories at Florida State and Virginia, but he took over in Coral Gables.
It was the first time a Tech player scored 25-plus off the bench since Justin Bibbs had 31 against Grambling State on Dec. 19, 2015. The last person to accomplish that against an ACC team was Jalen Hudson (32 points) vs. Wake Forest on March 10, 2015.
“He had a good look about him,” Mike Young said of Jaydon Young. “He’s practiced well, had some better looks at it than he’s had of late. Picked his spots. One of those players, one of those nights where the first couple went down, his eyes light up and that thing looks a little bit bigger than it has for him over the course of the season. He played very, very well.”
Young, Burnham and Wessler combined for 51 of Tech’s 53 bench points while Brandon Rechsteiner, who had five assists to just one turnover, chipped in the other two points.
It was the program’s most points off the bench in an ACC contest since it had 55 in a 70-67 overtime win over Pitt on Jan. 27, 2015. Adam Smith and Malik Muller led the way with 26 and 22 points, respectively, in that contest.
The Hokies also received nine points and nine rebounds from Lawal, seven points from Tyler Johnson, six from Poteat before he left the game and three from Ben Hammond.
They also only gave the ball away five times, all of which came in the first half. It was the first time they didn’t commit a turnover in a half since their three-overtime thriller vs. Miami on Feb. 19, 2020.
All things considered, it was an impressive response after scoring just 36 points — including only 11 in the first half — on Tuesday in Chestnut Hill.
“Thought they played with great energy, I really did,” Young said. “I thought we were a bit porous defensively in the first half, they can make you look porous. They’ve got talented offensive players. But did a good job on Jalil Bethea, did a good job for the most part. I thought we were very good in the second half defensively, really setting gaps.”
Tech returns to Cassell Coliseum on Tuesday for a three-game home stand — vs. No. 25 Louisville, Syracuse and North Carolina — before closing the regular season at No. 18 Clemson.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 81, Miami 68