Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Handled By Louisville, 85-71

The Hokies were down 15 at the half.

Jan 24, 2026; Louisville, Ky.; Louisville guard Kobe Rodgers (11) knocks the ball away from Virginia Tech forward Amani Hansberry (13) . | Jamie Rhodes-Imagn Images

Undone by an offensive collapse at the tail end of the first half, Virginia Tech men's basketball lost to Louisville, falling 85-71 at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Final from Louisville pic.twitter.com/YrXgF3mrTl

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 24, 2026

"I thought we had moments where we really defended them hard and made it tough on them," said Virginia Tech assistant coach J.D. Byers to the team's play-by-play broadcaster Zach Mackey on the Virginia Tech Sports Network. "But at the end of the day, you give up 13 threes and you turn it over like we did, it's going to be hard to win on the road, especially [against a] quality opponent like Louisville."

Louisville (14-5, 4-3 ACC) thrived despite what was initially a substandard shooting output from the field. Virginia Tech (15-6, 4-4 ACC) did a solid job on defense in the first half, limiting the Cardinals to a 14-for-35 (40%) clip from the field and a 6-for-17 (35.3%) mark from three-point range.

The problem, rather, for the Hokies, was its insipid offense. Guard Jailen Bedford led the way in the first half for Tech, logging 11 points on a 4-for-10 rate from the field. The only problem? Aside from him, Louisville limited the remainder of the Hokies' players to a drab 4-for-23 (17.4%).

The Cardinals especially thrived on shutting down three of Tech's main contributors for the duration of the contest: wing Neoklis Avdalas, plus forwards Amani Hansberry and Tobi Lawal. In the first half, Louisville limited the trio to a 1-for-16 output and a total of three points.

But the dam that truly broke came when Louisville's offense snapped through a solid Tech defense. In the final four minutes of the first half, the Cardinals outscored Virginia Tech 14-3, taking a 37-22 advantage into the break and wiping out any positive momentum the Hokies had going up to that point. At that point, the proverbial dam had broken — at least, that's what assistant coach J.D. Byers though.

"At the end of that half, the dam kind of broke," Byers said. "You look at the stat sheet, that's probably the difference in the game."

However, after that run, it was essentially game over for Virginia Tech, which failed to make much inroads from that point on. The Hokies occasionally threatened and cut the lead to 10 points with 6:28 to play. However, from that point, Louisville went on a 7-0 run that effectively shut the door on Virginia Tech.

The Hokies couldn't stop Louisville's offense in the second half; the Cardinals stampeded over Virginia Tech's defense, recording 48 second-half points on 54.8% percentages. They were stellar from three, too, knocking down seven of their 16 (43.8%) attempts from three-point land.

Though the Hokies responded with a barrage of long-range hoists, making seven of their first eight and 11 of 17 total in the second half, it wasn't enough to offset their substandard conclusion to the first half. Virginia Tech nailed a season-high 16 triples — yet, because of the dam-breaking 14-3 run, it wasn't enough and Tech dropped only its third contest this year by double-digits. The Hokies' previous two losses by 10-plus points both came at the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament in The Bahamas, coming to Saint Mary's (11) and VCU (18), respectively.

Guard Jailen Bedford provided one of the lone bright points of Saturday's blowout, contributing a team-high 24 points on 8-for-15 shooting. Outside of Bedford, the remainder of the team shot 17-for-47 (36.2%).

Bedford, who went seven straight games without scoring in double figures, appears to have found more of a rhythm. Since the start of 2026, he's dropped five double-digit games, with three going for over 20 points. Bedford's 24 points were the second-highest of the season, only behind his 25-point effort vs. Wake Forest on Jan. 3.

Though forward Tobi Lawal was quiet from the field, having a 1-for-7 night for two points, he was impactful on the defensive end, securing nine rebounds and a career-high five blocks.

Going back to Bedford, the graduate student transfer, who spent time with Oral Roberts and UNLV at the Division I level, was the primary defender of Louisville star freshman Mikel Brown Jr. The freshman played his first game since Dec. 13, vs. Memphis. In his first game back, the 6-foot-5 guard put up a team-high 20 points, three points and six rebounds.

In addition, Louisville had three other double-digit scorers Saturday: guard Ryan Conwell (15 points, 4-for-11 from three-point range), forward J'Vonne Hadley (14) and forward Sananda Fru (13 points, 10 rebounds).

Fru and Hadley served as stabilizing anchors for Louisville, complementing Brown upon his return and functioning as proverbial “glue guys." Their presence helped ease the burden on others, including Conwell and guard Isaac McKneely, allowing the rotation to operate with greater balance and cohesion.

Virginia Tech's own glue guy, guard Tyler Johnson, has been out since Dec. 21 vs. Elon with an ankle injury that forced him onto crutches. Since then, though, he's ditched the crutches while sitting on the bench. Young has stated in previous postgame media conferences that he is hopeful Johnson will be back soon; there has not been an update in Johnson's status in the availability reports throughout the entirety of league play.

Virginia Tech's next contest comes against Georgia Tech back in the friendly confines of Cassell Coliseum. The Hokies will take on the Yellow Jackets on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 8 p.m. ET. The contest will be available to watch on the ACC Network.