Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Halted By Saint Mary's In Battle 4 Atlantis Semifinal Loss

After six straight wins, the Hokies lost their first game of the season.

Virginia Tech Athletics

Virginia Tech men's basketball entered its second-round contest with Saint Mary's looking for its seventh straight victory — and its first 7-0 start since the 2012-13 campaign. But for the first time this season, the Hokies left the arena without a victory.

Back at it tomorrow.

Saint Mary's 77
VT 66 pic.twitter.com/2Bodzlxgk9

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 27, 2025

Virginia Tech (6-1) was quelled in the opening minutes by the Gaels (8-0) and despite a stellar 46-point second half effort, it couldn't make up the difference, dropping its first contest of the 2025-26 season. The ground-and-pound strategy worked for Saint Mary's early; the Gaels jumped out to a 12-2 advantage and forced the Hokies into six straight misses to kick off the second-round contest.

"Congratulations to Saint Mary's," said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. "Really good program, coach that I've admired for a long time. His team was a little bit better than than ours today. But I take nothing away from from our team.

"Thought we had a bit of adversity with Tobi [Lawal]. These guys sucked it up and played good basketball, gave ourselves a shot going down the stretch. Saint Mary's made some timely shots and defended well when they when they had to, couldn't get on track offensively in the first half, and that's frustrating, and I'll go back and dissect that to go down. I guess we were down 11 at the half and only scored 20, scored 46 in the second. Look like ourselves again. But good college basketball game. I hate that we came out on the wrong end of it."

In the opening eight minutes, the Hokies made only two of 13 (15.4%) from the field. Though Saint Mary's shooting was unremarkable — a 6-for-15 (40%) mark in that same stretch — Virginia Tech's guard-heavy rotation made it easier for the size-heavy Gaels to impose their will. The Hokies' issue was compounded by the absence of Tobi Lawal.

Zach Mackey, the play-by-play announcer for the Virginia Tech Sports Network, stated on the pregame show that Lawal would be out for the remainder of the tournament due to a lower-body injury. Young himself stated that Lawal is not seriously injured and that if it were a matchup of higher importance, the senior forward would have suited up.

Eventually, the Hokies found their stride — in spurts. Virginia Tech shrugged it off, going on a 7-0 run in a four and a half minute stretch to pull within 12-9. But still, its struggles remained. The Hokies missed their first 11 shots from the arc and while they countered with a solid effort from the charity stripe, they entered the second half down 11, 31-20. Consequently, despite a second-half surge that saw Tech equalize St. Mary's closing-frame output of 46 points, the Hokies couldn't push back.

That came despite a barrage of treys from guard Jaden Schutt, who poured in a season-high 17 points and drained four triples. Schutt's four triples represented more than half of Tech's total makes from beyond the arc — seven makes on 30 total attempts, a 23.3% clip.

"You know what you're going to get," Young said on Schutt. "He's going to play really, really hard, and he's going to have some nights when he's banging shots like he did tonight. He's good. He's a huge part of it. I've said before, I think I've got seven starters.

"The group that's been starting, minus Tobi today, obviously, But Ben Hammond would be in that group. Jaden Schutt would be in that group. They're all playing starters minutes, and certainly value each of their contributions. But Jaden Schutt had a Jaden Schutt day... He was moving very well, cutting very well. And he worked really hard this summer, gotten bigger and stronger, and he's moving better. Better able to take a lick and and get through that cut and get to a pin down, rise up and make a shot. Awfully proud of him. He's a good one."

Schutt's 17 points was complemented by a 18-point, 10-rebound outing from forward Amani Hansberry, who logged his second game back after missing Tech's game against Bryant on Nov. 19. Hansberry's double-double marked the third such occasion he tallied double-figures in both points and rebounds. Hansberry played a joint-team-high 37 minute alongside Hammond. Avdalas was the only other Hokie to play 30-plus minutes; six Hokies logged 20-plus minutes and nine played in the contest.

"We've got great offensive players and sets," Schutt said. "Really just had to figure out what we could what they're giving us, and really just kind of make the game easy from that. Just take what they're giving us and try to simplify it."

Following a 17-point outing against Colorado State, guard Jailen Bedford was blanked from the field; the graduate student missed all 10 of his shots against the Gaels, scoring two points via a pair of free throws.

Now that the Hokies have been eliminated from the winner's bracket, they'll play VCU in the third-place game tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. ET. The Rams offer more of the fast-paced tempo that Tech has performed well against; the Rams ranked No. 32 in Ken Pomeroy's adjusted tempo metric entering the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

Meanwhile, Saint Mary's moves to the tournament final against Vanderbilt to face off for the title of 2025 Battle 4 Atlantis champion.