Virginia Tech men's basketball fell to Saint Mary's 77-66 in the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals on Thursday afternoon in the Bahamas.
"Thought we had a bit of adversity with Tobi [Lawal], and these guys sucked it up and played good basketball," Tech head coach Mike Young said. "Gave ourselves a shot going down the stretch. Saint Mary's made some timely shots and defended well when they had to."
Though the Hokies (6-1) matched the Gaels' (8-0) 46 points in the second half, they fell behind early and trailed by 11 at halftime, 31-20. Their offense sputtered out of the gates, and by the time they picked it up, it was too late.
"Couldn't get on track in track offensively in the first half, and that's frustrating," Young said. "... We were down 11 at the half and only scored 20. Scored 46 in the second, looked like ourselves again, but good college basketball game. I hate that we came out on the wrong end of it."
Tech got the deficit below five points on five different occasions in the second half, but Saint Mary's made a few late pushes and hit some important shots to keep the Hokies at arm's length.
"Being patient on offense," Tech forward Amani Hansberry said of what changed in the second half. "Start moving pieces, making them guard for long periods, and as you guys saw, they started breaking down, we started getting the shots we wanted."
The Hokies were without forward Tobi Lawal due to a foot injury, according to Young, who said the senior could've played if necessary but was held out as a precaution. He's averaging 12.8 points and 10.3 rebounds per game this season. He'll likely be out until Tech travels to South Carolina on Tuesday.
"Tobi will be fine," Young said. "More precaution than anything. I don't think he'll play tomorrow. He's got a foot injury, we don't think it's anything terrible, but we will know more as we move along. He's in a boot as a precautionary measure. If he absolutely had to, probably could've gone today, but again, thought that if we err, it should be on the side of caution. We've got a long way to go, we've got many more mountains to climb and we need to get him healthy and do the right thing by him and our team."
As a result, Tech's frontcourt had an uphill battle against a long and lengthy Gaels squad that features a 7-foot-2 center in Andrew McKeever, a matchup problem, and a 6-foot-8 forward in Paulius Murauskas. McKeever finished with 14 points (7-for-10) while Murauskas paced Saint Mary's with 19 (6-for-14), 15 of which came in the second half. They combined for 15 rebounds, too.
Still, Hansberry posted his third double-double of the season for the Hokies with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Tyler Johnson also added some big-time plays with five points and five boards, and they also used Christian Gurdak and Antonio Dorn in spurts. For the most part, Young thought his group handled things well without Lawal.
"Tyler fought his rear end off and did a great job playing the four offensively, which is completely different from his natural spot," Young said. "... He will probably play as Tobi's backup at the four spot as we move along, but I thought he did a really good job there. They outrebounded us a little bit, we did have 16, 17 offensive rebounds. Our team played really hard, so did Saint Mary's. It was a really good college basketball game and they got the best of us."
Jaden Schutt helped keep Tech's chances alive with 14 points (of his 17) and four 3-pointers in the second half, his best outing of the season. He was 5-for-10 from the field, 4-for-8 from deep, made all three of his foul shots and added two steals and an assist.
"He's a good basketball player," Young said of Schutt. Had a tough game a couple of nights [ago], but you know what you're going to get, he's going to play really, really hard, and he's going to have some nights when he's banging shots like he did tonight. He's good, he's a huge part of it,
Neoklis Avdalas also scored in double figures with 13 points, 11 of which came in the second half, though he didn't shoot it particularly well. The true freshman was just 3-for-10, yet he got to the foul line a number of times, where he was 6-for-7.
Ben Hammond was the Hokies' lone spark in the first half, too. All nine of his points came before intermission as he started 4-for-5 as the rest of the team was a combined 3-for-28 over that stretch. He also chipped in six assists, three steals and two rebounds with no turnovers.
It was a quiet day for Jailen Bedford, who paced Tech with 17 points on Wednesday vs. Colorado State. He posted just two points, both of which came from the stripe, and missed all 10 of his field goals.
Tech was just 21-for-68 (30.9%) on the day against a stout Saint Mary's defense that has been a top-20 defensive team each of the last six years. It was really set back by its 7-for-33 first half (21.2%) that created the initial hole. Though it kept pace on the glass, being outrebounded just 39-34, and was an improved 14-for-35 (40%) in the second half, it wasn't enough.
"They're good," Young said of Saint Mary's defense. "[Randy Bennett's] teams have always been good on that end of it. ... I thought we had some really good shots in the first half from guys we want taking them, and we couldn't get anything generated, couldn't get anything going. We put ourselves behind the 8-ball a little bit being down 11, but right back we come in the second to cut it to four I think, and they hit a big shot to push it back to seven, if I recall correctly. They do a nice job on that end of the floor."
That was because the Gaels heated up. After a 46 percent clip (12-for-26) in the first 20 minutes, they were 57 percent overall in the second half (16-for-28), which included two clutch threes from Murauskas. Saint Mary's entered the tournament as the top 3-point shooting team in Division I at 45.6 percent and the Hokies only allowed six makes (on 17 attempts, 35.3%).
Joshua Dent (14 points, six assists), Rory Hawke (10 points) and Dillan Shaw (9 points, 2-of-2 3FG) also provided the Gaels with some balanced scoring.
It's the first setback of the season for Tech, who will face in-state foe VCU at 10:30 a.m. ET (ESPN2) on Friday in the third-place game. It'll be the 22nd all-time meeting between the Hokies and Rams and the first since 2013. It's also just the third-ever matchup outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia after Metro Tournaments in 1993 (Louisville, Ky.) and 1994 (Biloxi, Miss.).
The Rams are 4-3 in Year 1 of the Phil Martelli Jr. era and have a win over USF (78-64) and a loss to Vanderbilt (89-74) in the Bahamas. Jadrian Tracey (6-6, 210, r-Sr.) and Lazar Djokovic (6-11, 235, Jr.) are their leading scorers at 12.1 points per game.
Tech assistant coach J.D. Byers was previously at VCU on Mike Rhoades' staff, and Lawal played for the Rams for two seasons.
"I've just seen them a little bit," Young said of the Rams. "I did see quite a bit of the NC State game, and I was really watching it as a fan as much as anything else. I know Phil's got them playing really hard. They've got a good outfit. We look forward to it and I think a lot of Coach Martelli."
Box Score: Saint Mary's 77, Virginia Tech 66