Five Takeaways From Virginia Basketball's 75-74 Loss to Virginia Tech

Virginia (10-12, 3-8 ACC) suffered a 75-74 loss to Virginia Tech (10-12, 5-6 ACC) in the Commonwealth Clash on Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena. The Cavaliers mounted an 18-6 run to close the game. Read below for five takeaways from the game:

Virginia Attempts Late-Stage Comeback But Falls Short

The Cavaliers found their rhythm towards the end of the game, igniting a 7-0 run while locking in defensively, sending the Hokies into a 3.5-minute scoring drought. Despite the momentum surge, the Hokies reverted to dominating in the paint, which Virginia's bigs could not handle. Andrew Rohde drilled a three, and Taine Murray made a layup to cut the lead to five with 1:40 remaining, but then a jump-shot from Ben Hammond seemed to put the nail in the coffin with a minute left and a seven-point lead for VT.

In response, McKneely drew a foul and drained both free throws before a miss at the line on the other end led to Rohde nailing a fade-away jumper to bring the lead to three. The Cavaliers then fouled again, but the Hokies came up short at the line. Off the missed shot, Buchanan was fouled on the rebound.

For a full game thread: Virginia vs. Virginia Tech Live Updates | NCAA Men's Basketball

At the line, Buchanan missed, but the Cavaliers pulled off another defensive stop. With six seconds left, the Hokies fouled McKneely to prevent Virginia from tying the game. At the line, McKneely made both to make it 75-74.

The Hoos then fouled VT center Mylyjael Poteat, who missed both at the line. Rohde, scrambling with time ticking down, drove to the bucket, but his shot hit the backboard, then the front rim, and dropped, giving the Hokies the win. For a lead that grew to as big as 13, Virginia showed impressive fight at the end of the game to nearly steal the victory from the Hokies.

The late-stage push amounted to an 18-6 run to close the game, which included nine points from Andrew Rohde, who also led the end-of-game closeout on the defensive end. He finished with 12 points, seven assists and one steal.

Hoos Kept Pace For Majority of First Half, Despite Foul Trouble

Despite the absence of Elijah Saunders for the second straight game, the Virginia offense showed signs of life, similar to Wednesday night's game against Miami. The problem in the opening half was fouls, with Virginia committing six team fouls in the first nine minutes, which included an administrative technical foul for Ron Sanchez being too far out of the coach's box to speak with the officials. The fouls were even more problematic as the Hokies shot 9/10 from the charity stripe in the first half, punishing the Cavaliers.

In spite of the defensive struggles, which were magnified with Saunders out, Taine Murray continued his strong run of form early, knocking down two threes and constantly involving himself in the flow of the Virginia offense. McKneely also stepped up with nine first-half points, but the problem early was VT's dominance in the paint, with 14 points compared to Virginia's four. McKneely finished the game with 19 points.

Read Val's Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.

The Virginia Defense Struggles Once Again

The Hokies finished 11/21 from three as the Cavaliers had zero answers as VT constantly created wide-open threes off screens, punishing the Hoos. The struggles are attributable to the absence of Sanders, causing Virginia to play two centers: Jacob Cofie, Blake Buchanan, or Anthony Robinson. Virginia's bigs struggled to keep pace on screens and matchup against smaller shiftier forwards. The three-point dominance also comes from the Virginia Tech frontcourt outplaying Virginia's, with Jaden Schutt leading the way for the team from Blacksburg, scoring 13 points.

At the start of the game, Virginia focused on containing Virginia Tech's frontcourt, leading to 14 first-half points in the paint. In response, the Hoos made it a point in the second half to contain the paint, which allowed the Hokies frontcourt to dominate from deep, as Virginia struggled to fight through picks, allowing VT to finish with 33 points from beyond the arc.

The Virginia Offense is Not Good Enough to Go Shot for Shot

Due to the defensive struggles, the game turned into a shot-for-shot affair with the Hokies consistently scoring for much of the game, making any Virginia shot significantly less impactful as, until the end of the game, the Cavaliers struggled to string together scoring runs as any bucket by the Hoos would instantly be nullified on the other end. From a substitution standpoint, this also put Coach Ron Sanchez in a predicament, whether to prioritize defense or offense. Ishan Sharma didn't play until 8:50 in the second half, after scoring eight points in the first half, but was a defensive liability when he was on the floor, struggling on picks.

Hoos Fall to Virginia Tech in Charlottesville for the First Time Since 2018

The last time Virginia lost to Virginia Tech in Charlottesville was a 61-60 overtime loss on February 10th, 2018. The loss knocked Virginia out of contention for the illustrious No. 1 AP poll ranking. On the contrary, this loss pushes Virginia to 10-12, 3-8 in conference as the Cavaliers sit 15th in the ACC and as the last team into the ACC tournament. A lot can change in a short couple of years…

Virginia has a quick turnaround as the Cavaliers travel to face Pittsburgh on Monday night at 7pm.