Men's Basketball Escapes Pressure-Filled Affair Against California With 78-75 Victory

The Hokies allowed a 14-0 run in the first half but rallied for their first victory of 2026.

Jan 10, 2026; Blacksburg, Va.; Virginia Tech guard Neoklis Avdalas (17) high-fives guard Jailen Bedford (0). | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

BLACKSBURG, Va. — Basketball is a game of runs. For Virginia Tech men's basketball, the runs have increasingly leaned towards the game becoming tight as it approaches its zenith. For the fifth straight game now, Virginia Tech went into the final regulation either up by a possession or trailing by one. The pattern repeated against California, leaving the Hokies on the precipice of either snapping a two-game skid or falling into a hole of three consecutive losses.

back in the win column ✅

🤝 @shelormotormile pic.twitter.com/myO4E5RiJ4

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 10, 2026

However, in a reversal of the Hokies' previous two games against Wake Forest and Stanford, the Hokies (13-4, 2-2 ACC) produced enough points to hang on, toppling the Golden Bears (13-4, 1-3 ACC), 78-75, Saturday afternoon in Cassell Coliseum. In the contest, six Virginia Tech players scored in double figures, the second such occasion this season.

"You've got to be able to play in pressure moments," said Viriginia Tech head coach Mike Young. "And that's why that non-conference schedule [matters]. Those moments, who's going to respond, who may not respond? You got to step up and make foul shots. [Jailen] Bedford missed one. [Jaden Schutt] missed one that we walk out of here comfortably if we get those down.

"But we shot our fouls great today... We're going to have a lot of these [tight games] and I wish it weren't so. But it's a really good league. Good, good teams, and we're going to have to respond time in and time out."

That victory almost didn't come to fruition. With the team nursing a one-possession lead on a pair of occasions, guards Jaden Schutt and Jailen Bedford went to the line with the game potentially hanging in the balance, doing so with 6.7 seconds and 3.6 seconds remaining, respectively. Schutt and Bedford each missed the front end of their free throws, allowing the Golden Bears to hang around after both possessions.

On the first, John Camden — one of the Hokies' reserves in both the 2022-23 season and the 2023-24 campaign — received the inbound, passing the ball behind him. However, it sailed behind his anticipated target, rolling out of bounds, grantig the Hokies possession and forcing California to foul Bedford.

Following Bedford splitting his pair of free throws, Camden again received the inbound pass. However, this time, he stopped and waited for a split second before lobbing the ball past midcourt to Golden Bears center Milos Ilic. The ball eventually found its way to guard Justin Pippen with time slipping away; as time expired, the former four-star recruit, who played his freshman year at Michigan, unfurled a three-point attempt over the outstretched arms of Schutt. Pippen's shot hit back iron, however, granting Virginia Tech a narrow 78-75 victory in a contest that echoed shades of both the Hokies' previous close wins, as well as their deflating losses.

"17 games in, and I think back to the Providence game," Young said. "That game had had some moments where it didn't look real good for the Hokies. South Carolina, on the road. Virginia, in here, in triple overtime. You click them off. Those experiences are invaluable for moments like that. I thought they had a good look about them. I thought the response was quite, quite encouraging."

Shades of the wins: Virginia Tech knuckled down in the stretch run, though it came with several panic-inducing moments, the missed free throws from Schutt and Bedford among them.

Shades of the losses: Like the Wake Forest game, Virginia Tech allowed California to dictate the pace for the majority of the first half. The Golden Bears were aggressive both in getting to the rim and gobbling rebounds; California outshot the Hokies, 30-23, in the first frame and outrebounded Tech, 19-8, as well.

That mark on the glass came despite the Hokies starting the game off with a 5-1 edge on the glass. From that point, however, the Golden Bears imposed their will on the glass for the remainder of the first half, tallying an 18-3 advantage to the end of the first frame.

But the Hokies stayed in the game, equalizing the game at 37 entering halftime. Why? Free throws — 31 of them on Saturday, to be precise. Virginia Tech attempted 31 shots from the stripe against the Golden Bears and only missed four.

That, and the Hokies countered back with better rebounding in the second half, outrebounding California 20-12 in the final 20 minutes of game time.

Back to basketball being a game of runs. Both teams erupted on double-digit scoring streaks in the first half. After leading 16-10, Virginia Tech faltered, allowing California to score 14 uninterrupted points and lead by as many as 11 in the first half. From the 14:05 mark of the first half to the 6:37 mark, the Hokies were outscored, 17-2.

Then, the Hokies responded, tallying 11 points of their own and ending the half on a 19-9 run.

"I thought we were fine [after Cal's 14-point run]," Young said. "Certainly no time to panic. But right back, we come offensively. Had a really nice flurry, and I think, tied it up pretty quickly. I guess it was tied at the half.

"We're 17 games in. Now, this thing comes at you fast. We've seen a lot of situations. Next best action. What's next? Not too high when you have a 10-0 run, not too low, when you have a 10-0 run the other way. Just the next play, just move on to the next play. And this team has been pretty good with that."

The second half was a closely-fought affair that never saw each team eke out a lead larger than five. Consequently, Virginia Tech entered the end of its fifth straight game with the margin separated by a possession. For the third time in that stretch, the Hokies went out victorious.

One stat of note: Virginia Tech ended the evening having outscored Cal 23-10 on points off turnovers. When asked about what he liked about his team being able to get out in transition, Young remarked that the team's rebounding was "flipped".

"We flipped that on the glass all right in the first half," Young said. "We got our ass handed to us on the glass, and that's hard to stomach. They don't have a very big front line other than [Lee] Dort, and we thought that that was a real, a real advantage for our team... Second half, we did a much better job."

With the victory, Virginia Tech equalized its win tally from the 2024-25 campaign; the team is also 9-1 in home games at Cassell Coliseum.

The contest came against the team that had ended Virginia Tech's 2025 season in the opening round of that season's ACC Tournament, an 82-73 double-overtime takedown that put a merciful end to a substandard Hokies campaign. However, this California team resembles last year's mostly in name only. For one, last year's marquee player for the Golden Bears, Andrei Stojakovic, is no longer in Berkeley, having transferred to Illinois ahead of the 2025-26 campaign.

Instead, it was guard Dai Dai Ames, who transferred from Virginia over the offseason, that commandeered California's ship. The junior tallied a game-high 21 points on 8-for-12 shooting against the Hokies.

Virginia Tech's next contest is a significant trek; the Hokies will next travel up to Dallas, Texas to square off against SMU on Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 9 p.m. ET. At the time of writing, the TV channel is unknown.