Men's Basketball Narrowly Edged By Wake Forest In 81-78 Loss

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — For the first time this season, Virginia Tech men's basketball fell on United States soil. Prior to Saturday's showdown vs. Wake Forest, the Hokies sat at 12-2, their lone two stumbles coming against Saint Mary's and VCU in the semifinal and third-place games of the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament in the Bahamas, respectively.

However, encumbered by a difficult opening stretch where they were outscored 12-2, the Hokies (12-3, 1-1 ACC) dropped their first game since Nov. 28, falling to the Demon Deacons (10-5, 1-1 ACC), 81-78, Saturday afternoon and narrowly losing an opportunity to notch a Quad 1 win. Virginia, formerly in the top-30, dropped to No. 31 in the NET, relegating that game to a Quad 2 victory at the moment for Virginia Tech.

next play ⏭️ Wednesday vs. Stanford pic.twitter.com/w5tZKBk9r8
— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 3, 2026

In the opening four minutes against the Hokies, Wake Forest erupted on the aforementioned 12-2 stretch; in that same span, the Demon Deacons also forced Virginia Tech guard Neoklis Avdalas, who had boasted a 2.28 assist-to-turnover ratio, into four turnovers. Avdalas committed seven turnovers Saturday and compiled eight points, just the fourth time this season that the Greek wing has been held under a double-digit tally.

The Greek wing appeared visibly frustrated during the contest; however, his second-half effort was a much stronger output. Avdalas notched all eight of his points in the second frame, while committing one turnover and logging three assists.

Avdalas wasn't the only one to deal with turnover issues; the entire team struggled with ball control, turning the ball over a season-high 19 times — including 14 in the first half. Wake Forest implemented an aggressive style where it refused to let Avdalas "turn the corner", flustering the Greek wing, who logged his 13th game in collegiate ball today. Despite those efforts from Wake Forest, it only led by four, 36-32, at the halftime break.

Forward Amani Hansberry was again the Hokies' primary connector, facilitator and do-it-all player on the floor. Though he committed six turnovers, Hansberry rolled up 19 points (14 second-half) and 10 rebounds. His efforts Saturday marked the first time since 2020-21 that a player has recorded three straight double-doubles (Keve Aluma on Jan. 27, 2021, Jan. 30, 2021 and Feb. 3, 2021).

"The kid is invaluable," said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. "Would have played 33, 34, 35 [minutes]. That burns me. Burns me that that happened. But he's a heck of a basketball player. We have a hard time without him, as he's such a great communicator and such a great connector on both ends of the floor.

"He's had a great year. I think that's only going to continue. He's an all-timer and you know how much I enjoy coaching him."

Hansberry was in foul trouble for much of the first half, though, working up three fouls in the first 14 minutes. Consequently, Virginia Tech was forced to rotate true freshman Sin'Cere Jones to the five-spot, lacking Tobi Lawal and Antonio Dorn due to an ankle injury and lingering back issues, respectively. However, Young believes that Lawal could potentially play in the Hokies' Jan. 7 contest against Stanford, though it's not with 100% certainty.

"That remains to be seen, and that's barring any unforeseen setbacks between now and then," Young said. "That is not a guarantee."

Hansberry also knocked down a trey with 8:07 left on the clock that granted Virginia Tech its first lead of the contest, 60-58, forcing the Demon Deacons to call time. However, Wake Forest refused to go away, now playing from closely behind as the Hokies had done much of the day.

Deacons guard Myles Colvin tied the game with six minutes and 30 seconds remaining; however, guard Jailen Bedford countered with a triple to put the Hokies back up, 65-62. Bedford logged a season-high 25 points against the Deacons, his first game with 20 or more points since Charlotte on Nov. 16 (21 points).

"He was good," Young said. "He was really good against Providence. He was really good. He's had some great moments. He's really helped our team. He's the best on-ball defender we've got, to the point we moved him off of Juke [Harris] and onto [Nate] Calmese there at different times."

For the remaining six and a half minutes, the disparity remained a one- or two-possession game, with both teams firing back with key buckets. Calmese notched a pair of free throws to knot the game at 67. Then, following a breakaway jam from Deacons forward Tre'Von Spillers, Bedford again came up clutch, countering Wake Forest's efforts with a layup.

Them, Spillers again gave Wake Forest the lead, before Hammong neutralized the Demon Deacons' advantage to raise his total to 14 on the day. Just four days after his 30-point heroics in the triple-overtime win over then-No. 21 Virginia on New Year's Eve, Hammond was again active, slicing into the paint on several occasions either to take his own shot — or to find either Bedford or sharpshooter Jaden Schutt.

Yet again, Spillers countered, accepting a feed from Calmese and jamming the ball home with authority. Hansberry responded with a triple with 1:22, however, forcing Wake Forest to call time out.

Spillers then struck in a two-part installment with an and-one that led to two beneficial outcomes for the Demon Deacons. The first was the obvious: It granted three points — two for the successful layup, followed by the made free throw. The second: it fouled out Hansberry, who exited the contest after posting 19 points and 10 rebounds.

However, even sans Hansberry, Virginia Tech didn't go down without a fight, with freshman Christian Gurdak countering with a layup of his own, his first made field goal of the contest. Gurdak logged six points on 1-for-3 shooting from the field, knocking down all of his four free throw shots after producing a 17-point, 19-rebound performance against the Cavaliers.

Virginia Tech stopped the Demon Deacons from scoring immediately and forced a timeout with 25.7 seconds remaining; however, Wake Forest produced the finishing blow 19 seconds of game time later.

With 6.5 ticks left on the clock, Calmese rose up over Hammond arms', draining the game-winning trey to give Wake Forest a 79-76 advantage. Calmese scored a team-high 25 points for the Demon Deacons Saturday, in addition to logging seven assists.

What followed was a series of intentional fouls by both teams that set up the game-sealing sequence. Bedford went to the line with Virginia Tech trailing 81-78 with 1.7 seconds of clock remaining and missed his first shot. His second miss was intentional, but the defensive rebound was corralled by Wake Forest, putting an end to the game and snapping the Hokies' six-game winning streak.

For the first time this season, it's a close game that didn't go Virginia Tech's way. Prior to Saturday, Virginia Tech had claimed four wins in overtime, including three such occasions in December that fell in the range of that six-game heater — Providence (107-101, Nov. 8), South Carolina (86-83, Dec. 2), Elon (82-81, Dec. 20) and most recently, Virginia (95-85, 3OT, Dec. 31). However, this time, it lacked just enough fire to escape with the victory, which would have been the Hokies' first in the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum since the 2020-21 campaign.

For much of the day, Virginia Tech trailed, but late, it rallied enough to snatch the lead at several points. In total, the Hokies led for three minutes and four seconds. However, Virginia Tech didn't lead when it was vital, partially down to the fact that it didn't find the closing shot to put the game away and partially down to the fact that Hansberry had fouled out late.

Virginia Tech's next two contests come at home as the Hokies venture back to the friendly confines of Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg to take on Stanford on Wednesday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. ET, then California at 4 p.m. ET.

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