Virginia Tech couldn’t close out No. 19 Louisville in a 71-66 loss late Tuesday night in Cassell Coliseum.
After falling behind early, the Hokies (12-16, 7-10 ACC) rallied to tie the game but never pulled ahead. Instead, the Cardinals (22-6, 15-2) were better in the final moments and won their 16th game in their last 17 outings.
“Twenty-two turnovers. Miserable,” Tech head coach Mike Young said after the game. “That said, I’m elated with our team’s competitive spirit and did some really good things. … They fought like crazy and Louisville’s got a good basketball team. Consequently, they’re ranked 19th in the country, they’ve got good pieces and make some things hard on you.”
The Hokies got down 11-0 through the first four minutes of the game and Young was forced to call an early timeout, which is a rarity. They turned it over six times in that span — one more than their entire total in Saturday’s win over Miami — and only attempted one shot, a layup from Jaydon Young.
They eventually settled in, courtesy of Ben Burnham and Brandon Rechsteiner, who were their only offense in the first half. Playing against his former coach in Pat Kelsey, Burnham knocked down two 3-pointers to give Tech something. Then a Rechsteiner trey made it 18-9 before the under-12 timeout.
“We’re down 11 to start the game and thank goodness, here comes Burnham in to steady the ship a little bit,” Young said.
“I think a lot of times when we come out slow, it’s just us running our offense so slow with no pace,” Rechsteiner said. “That was when Louisville was able to get up into us and not let us reverse the ball. When he called timeout, that’s when we had some guys check in and we were just like, ‘We’re going to push it, let’s move it fast.’”
Tech had its best offensive stretch of the half out of that stoppage. Rechsteiner got another triple down, Tyler Johnson got a layup to fall through traffic and a three from Jaydon Young cut the deficit to three, 20-17.
The Hokies went cold after that, missing 11 of their final 14 shots to end the half, and Louisville led 34-26 at intermission.
Then the tide started to shift as the second half went on. Down 50-39 with 13 minutes remaining, Tech started to string possessions together on both ends. Burnham and Johnson knocked down back-to-back threes, and after Kelsey called timeout in an attempt to reset his group, a three-point play from Johnson off an offensive board cut the margin to two.
Then Young knotted things up. The hero in Saturday’s win over Miami with 27 points, he hit a jumper and then a 3-pointer to tie things at 53 with 10:32 remaining.
It was neck-and-neck from there, but Tech couldn’t pull in front, even when it was 55-all. It had nine different opportunities to take the lead in a tie game but missed five shots and turned it over four times.
“We had turnovers down the stretch,” Rechsteiner said. “They did too, but the team that kind of doesn’t turn it over is usually going to win.”
The Cardinals eventually jumped back in front, courtesy of leading scorers Chucky Hepburn (15 points) and Terrence Edwards Jr. (13) taking over, and the latter nailed down back-to-back treys to give them some cushion. Tech hung around, though.
Down 67-62 with three minutes left, a layup from Burnham cut the deficit to five. Tobi Lawal, who struggled and only had two points, scored his lone basket with 2:18 to go, trimming it to three. And after Hepburn turned it over, a turnaround elbow jumper from Rechsteiner made it a one-point game.
It was then things slowly unraveled for the Hokies. The Cardinals grabbed three offensive rebounds on the next series, the last of which was a putback dunk from James Scott — a key board in a contest where Tech outrebounded Louisville 37-30.
“It’s the difference between winning and losing, plays like that,” Young said.
Still, Tech had a chance to tie, but Rechsteiner’s attempt at a cross-court pass flew out of bounds. After stonewalling Hepburn and turning him over again, Young drew up one final play with 23 seconds remaining in a three-point contest. The Cardinals changed up their defense and guarded the action very well, though — switching for the first time all game.
It caught Tech off guard, which made Jaydon Young hold the ball longer than intended at the top of the key. He eventually tried to pass to Rechsteiner on the wing, but it was deflected as it reached its intended target and recovered by Louisville. Two free throws from Reyne Smith sealed things.
“We had a great play and I had set a good screen and I was going to be wide open, no one was on me,” Rechsteiner said. “And then he just switched out. It was kind of like, ‘Oh shoot. Now what do we do?’ In that situation, we’ve got to attack, especially with me — I had their center on me. I should’ve just went at him when I realized.”
“I give Brian Kloman, my defensive coordinator, longtime assistant, a lot of credit,” Louisville head coach Pat Kelsey said. “Made an adjustment coming out of the huddle in the last possession when they were running a play to get a 3-point shot, he adjusted some of our matchups. … We were assuming that they were going to start the possession with a middle ball screen, which they did, which allowed us to get back to natural matchups very, very easily.”
The Hokies were without starting forward Mylyjael Poteat (bone bruise) and guard Rodney Brown Jr. (foot) — both of whom are expected back on Saturday vs. Syracuse, if not for Tuesday’s clash with North Carolina — while Lawal and Jaden Schutt had very limited roles. Yet, they were still in the game and had a chance to win.
They dug themselves an early hole but eventually climbed out of it. The better team made more plays in crunch time, though. There were 12 instances in the final 10:32 where Tech was in a one-possession game but couldn’t pull in front, and it gave the ball away on seven of those occasions. Overall, they had 22 turnovers.
“Louisville really tries to jack you up,” Rechsteiner said. “Miami, they kind of let you run your stuff. Louisville jacked us up and how you start the game is kind of an indicator of how it’s going to go. We didn’t expect them to blow us up like that and they did, and it just kept going from there.”
Rechsteiner finished with a team-high 18 points to go with a career-high five rebounds and four assists. Burnham added 13 points while Johnson had 12 and Young posted 11. Patrick Wessler impressed in his first collegiate start, too, racking up eight points and six boards in place of Poteat.
Tech continues its home stand on Saturday vs. Syracuse (noon ET) before hosting North Carolina.
Box Score: No. 19 Louisville 71, Virginia Tech 66
Thoughts from #Hokies' 71-66 loss to No. 19 Louisville: pic.twitter.com/wWKiwpCDqL
— David Cunningham (@therealdcunna) February 26, 2025