Another Hokies game came down to the wire on Wednesday night at Syracuse, and they came out on top this time, storming back from a halftime deficit and holding off the Orange late for a 76-74 victory.
"We've mishandled a couple of things," Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young told reporters after the game. "We fouled [Tyler] Betsey on a 3-point shot, we didn't meet the ball in the press, but man, I thought we played a really good ball game, certainly in the last 20 minutes. I'm proud of our team. Any win on the road in this thing is significant."
Tech (15-5, 4-3 ACC) trailed 37-30 at intermission but flipped a switch in the locker room and took it to Syracuse (12-7, 3-3) in the second half, drawing 20 fouls in as many minutes and attempting 33 free throws. It made 25 of those and was 12-for-14 in the final two minutes and 26-for-36 on the day, led by Ben Hammond (12-for-13) and Tobi Lawal (10-for-14).
Still, the Hokies nearly blew another late lead. After trailing by as many as 10 points in the first half, they took things over in the second and flipped the game on its head. With 1:02 remaining, two Hammond foul shots put them up nine, 68-59, before things almost unraveled.
Tyler Betsey knocked down a 3-pointer for the Orange, and after two more Hammond free throws, he was fouled by Hammond while shooting a three. He made all three foul shots. Then Tech's Jaden Schutt turned the ball over in the corner against the Syracuse press, which led to a Donnie Freeman layup. Like that, it was a three-point game, 70-67, with 38 seconds left.
Lawal converted two free throws, but J.J. Starling blew past the Hokies with ease for a layup. Then, in a similar situation to Schutt, Neoklis Avdalas gave the ball away when trying to pass out of the corner. His throw bounced off Amani Hansberry's body and out of bounds.
Tech was lucky that Syracuse missed a 3-point look from Nate Kingz. Avdalas grabbed the board and was fouled, where he made his second of two free throws to extend the margin to four. However, Starling quickly cut it to two, 73-71, with 7.5 seconds to play.
The Hokies had a clean inbound to Avdalas, who made his first foul shot and pushed the lead to three. And though he missed the second attempt, Lawal soared in for the rebound and brought it down while being fouled by Betsey. He drained two free throws to put the game on ice.
The Orange got one final shot off, a 3-pointer from Naithan George at the horn that was good, but Tech left Upstate New York with an important 76-74 victory.
"I've got really smart people," Young said on the Virginia Tech Sports Network after the game. "I've got a really high-IQ basketball team, and we do some of the dumbest daggone things. That just infuriates me. We had a godawful shot over there from Ben Hammond, who was such a great player, and man, he played good basketball tonight. A terrible turnover there, just sloppy. Ben fouls a 3-point shooter. You can't do things like that.
"And we've been in enough of those situations through 21 total games now that that's got to be cleaned up, and that is as much coaching as it is anything, so I've got to do a better job with it as well."
It was an interesting turn of events after a first half that saw the Hokies fall behind quickly as Syracuse lit them up from behind the arc. Virginia Tech entered the day ranked in the top 10 in 3-point defense, and the Orange was averaging seven makes per game, but it couldn't seem to miss in the opening 20 minutes, drilling seven of its 12 looks.
Kingz and Freeman were the main weapons and both knocked down two treys while Betsey, Kiyan Anthony and Sadiq White each hit one. Both teams were 13-for-30 (43.3%) from the field in the first half in what was an even game, but Syracuse's outside shooting was the difference.
The Hokies didn't improve much from long range after the break — they were 1-for-8 in the second after just shooting 3-for-9 in the first — but they held the Orange to just 3-for-11 on 3-point attempts and were the more physical team. They drew 28 fouls while only committing 15 and shot 36 free throws to Syracuse's 14.
"We just weren't right in the first half," Young said. "We didn't have the right stuff to beat Syracuse, we didn't have the right stuff to win a game on the road in this league, and I told them as much in the second half.
"I thought our spirit was a bit off in the first half," Young said. "I thought our energy and just the right stuff, the winning stuff that this team oozes, was not there, and I told them as much. I said, 'I can sit here and draw up a bunch of elaborate X's and O's. This is about our spirit. This is about playing the game the right way and competing your tail off,' and man, they did that in the second half, and I'm really proud of them."
Part of that effort from Tech occurred when it went small. Starting frontcourt pieces Amani Hansberry and Christian Gurdak were both sitting on four fouls with 9:47 remaining, forcing Young to slide Lawal to the five and roll with four guards. It worked, and even though the Hokies went 5:27 without a field goal, they were propped up by nine made foul shots over that stretch.
Then they finally got going via a Hammond floater late in the shot clock and his three-point play off a steal. His motor propelled them down the stretch, and he was part of the reason they forced eight steals in the second half. He was responsible for six of them, a career-high.
Hammond became the seventh ACC-era Tech player with six-plus steals in a game and just the second with at least 24 points, six steals, four assists and four rebounds. Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who is averaging 20.5 points per game this season with the Atlanta Hawks, accomplished that feat on Jan. 30, 2019, at Miami.
Hammond has scored in double figures in 11 of his last 12 games and has started his last three times out. In those three contests, he's accounted for 51 points on 16-for-31 shooting (51.6%).
Lawal was huge for the Hokies, too. He managed another double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds in 30 minutes, though he made his living at the stripe. Hansberry and Avdalas also added 10 points apiece while Gurdak chipped in eight points and eight boards. Schutt and Jailen Bedford were quiet, combining for just eight points.
On the other side, Tech limited Syracuse's leading scorer, Donnie Freeman, to 10 points on 3-for-14 shooting. He grabbed nine rebounds but also had four of his team's 14 turnovers. William Kyle III, a typical shot-blocking machine, did not have one against the Hokies, though he posted 10 points and eight boards.
Starling, White and Betsey played important roles for the Orange, though they all fouled out in the final minutes. George also dealt with foul trouble and had just six points. Anthony was good early, scoring five points, but didn't play much down the stretch. And then there was Kingz, who provided the home team's early spark from the outside but was quiet after that.
The win was Tech's second ever against Syracuse in the JMA Wireless Dome and the first since Jan. 7, 2020. It's now taken three of the last four in the series.
Though the updated NET rankings on Thursday might classify it as a Quadrant 2 game, the Hokies earned a Quadrant 1 victory over the Orange, who will likely be a top-75 team come the end of the year. In turn, they also provided a jolt to their NCAA Tournament résumé — and they've got another chance to add to it on Saturday at No. 23 Louisville.
Box Score: Virginia Tech 76, Syracuse 74