It wasn't pretty, but Virginia Tech beat Boston College 72-63 in its final home game of the 2025-26 regular season late Tuesday night in Cassell Coliseum.
"They're like a daggone chest cold; you can't get rid of them," Hokies head coach Mike Young said of the Eagles. "They're tough, they hang in there. I mean, I watched them play a lot over the last couple days. Right down to the wire with NC State, right down to the wire with Virginia. ... So, up 19, you've got to put the thing away, and we don't, but we won. I am proud of our team."
The Eagles (10-20, 3-14 ACC) were pesky, as they have been all season, but the Hokies (19-11, 8-9) did enough to shut the door in the final minutes.
Tech led by 15, 67-52, after Ben Hammond's 3-pointer with 5:18 remaining, and it had an opportunity to put BC on its heels even more when a Hammond steal started a fast break. However, his cheeky behind-the-back pass to Tobi Lawal was not on target, and the Eagles scooped up the ball under the rim and easily scored on the other end.
That started a 9-0 run over three-plus minutes for the visitors, and the Hokies' margin was trimmed to 67-61 with 1:19 left after Boden Kapke's layup. However, Tech forced some missed shots and closed things out at the free-throw line, going 5-for-6 with two makes each from Hammond and Lawal, plus one from Neoklis Avdalas.
"We did some really just not very smart basketball plays," Young said of his team's play down the stretch. "Sloppy basketball just drives me nuts. ... We had to find a way to win, we did that."
The Hokies were on fire out of the gates, scoring the game's first seven points and jumping out to a 14-4 lead at the first media timeout. Their defense was particularly impressive, and a 13-0 run over nearly five minutes created a 19-point cushion at 30-11.
Avdalas unlocked things early, knocking down four 3-pointers in the first nine minutes and tacking on a jumper to cap off the 13-0 run. He was 5-for-8 in the first half, which included a 4-for-5 mark from three, though he didn't convert a field goal in the second half and finished with just 15 points.
"He was really good," Young said of Avdalas. "Looked like himself. Thought he had a good ball game. I thought he played very well. Picking his spots. He's going to make the right basketball play. Just had a good look about him, and played good ball."
"We followed his energy," Hammond said, "and that's pretty good for us to start the game."
Tech cooled off after that, though, and scored just five points over the remaining 6:18 of the first half, all while BC posted 13 points and took a 6-0 run into the locker room.
A chunk of that came from Kapke, the 6-foot-11 forward who dropped a career-high 25 points, including 14 in the second half. He was 11-for-19 from the field and 3-for-8 from 3-point range.
For the most part, the Hokies did well to slow down the Eagles' guards â Fred Payne had a 16-point, 12-rebound double-double, but accomplished that on 8-for-22 shooting, while the other guards had a combined 11 points on a 4-for-17 clip â but struggled against Kapke.
"Fred Payne, I guess he got it going in the second half, but first half, I feel like we did a pretty good job of trying to keep the ball out of his hands," Hammond said. "Their big man kind of killed us, but I feel like we did pretty well with the guards."
Kapke knocked down a crucial 3-pointer early in the second half to pull Boston College within seven at 36-29, and it hung around from there. Virginia Tech made some runs, like a 7-0 stretch that included a Jailen Bedford trey, but back the Eagles came with one of their own to cut it to six.
While Kapke took over for BC, Tobi Lawal did the same for the Hokies, turning the game on its head by scoring eight straight points over two minutes and pushing the lead back to 12. He paced them with 20 points, including a 6-for-11 mark from the field and an 8-for-9 clip from the stripe, and seven rebounds.
"He's so damn athletic," Young said of Lawal. "... He just gets up over the pack at times and scores that ball, snares an offensive rebound."
After Hammond hit the aforementioned three, and the Hokies had an opportunity to push the margin back to 17 with 4:30 to go, but could not capitalize. Instead, the Eagles made them sweat. Kapke seemingly willed BC within six points again, but Tech did enough to keep its distance.
"Just nasty, and I say that admirably," Young said of BC's defense. "There's nothing dirty about Boston College. They are physical, they are scrappy, they are top [70] in the country defensively. Earl [Grant] has always been a really good defensive coach. ... They don't go away. They just fight."
The Hokies finished the year with a 14-3 record at home. Now they'll take their talents to Charlottesville to close the regular season at No. 13 Virginia on Saturday at noon ET on the CW. In the first edition of the Commonwealth Clash, Tech beat UVa 95-85 in Cassell Coliseum on New Year's Eve.
"I felt like we came in that game wanting to win that game, knowing that we have the chance to win that game," Hammond said of the first win over the Cavaliers. "So just going out there with the confidence that we can play against those guys. They're a great basketball team, they've had a great season, but I feel like we can compete well with them and do a good job."
Box Score: Virginia Tech 72, Boston College 63