Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Stumbles to VCU to Close Out Battle 4 Atlantis

The Hokies lost by 18 to the Rams in the tournament's third-place game.

Virginia Tech Athletics

Virginia Tech men's basketball stumbled out of the gates in its third-place consolation game, falling to VCU, 86-68, and finishing fourth overall in its first appearance in the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament.

Final. pic.twitter.com/cWGir4Seuy

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) November 28, 2025

"Congratulations to [Coach Phil Martelli, Jr.] and the Rams," said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. "A long tournament, three days, three games, and they came off a loss last night to Vanderbilt. Obviously, we came off a loss to St Mary's. They played better ball than than we did, and that falls on my shoulders. We'll get it corrected."

VCU (5-3) leapt out to a torrid 10-2 start and rarely allowed the Hokies back into the contest. Although Virginia Tech (6-2) mounted a late fight, it wasn't enough to seize the lead away. In total, the Hokies only led for 22 seconds in the 40-minute contest. Though Virginia Tech improved its touch from the field, shooting 44% from the field Friday after a 31% mark last night, it was hindered by an occasionally rocky second half, where it shot 9-for-24 from the field (37.5%) and made two of its seven (28.6%) three-point shots.

The struggle began from the jump; Tech missed four of its first five shots, while VCU nailed six of its first nine.

Where the Rams pulled away was in its offensive effort. The Rams boasted shooting splits of over 50% from the field, deep and from the charity stripe; both halves produced totals higher than 45% in all three categories. Four VCU players tallied double-digit points against the Hokies, with sophomore guard Terrence Hill Jr. leading the way with 21. Hill knocked down a career-high five triples.

"I take nothing away from them, nothing," Young said. "We had a couple of things on, and they get shots down at the end of the buzzer... That's the game. You've got to respond better than than we did to unfortunate things. They move.

"We had a hard time guarding the ball in the first half. I thought we did a much better job of guarding the ball in the second half, just straight line drives.... You've got to be able to guard your yard. I've got to be able to guard the yard to my right and left. And that was a an issue for us; the first one was across the board. Wasn't one person, two people. We had a number of blow-bys, and that makes it really hard for for your interior people, Tyler [Johnson] and Amani [Hansberry]. Consequently, we've got fouls to deal with again this morning."

Virginia Tech was able to remain within distance for much of the first half thanks to guard Jaden Schutt. The redshirt junior, one of four mainstays from Virginia Tech’s 2024-25 roster, poured in 15 points in the contest, with 13 in the opening frame. Schutt again was stellar from beyond the arc, cashing in on three of his seven attempts from beyond the arc. Schutt's effort marked the fourth time this season that he's hit on three or more three-pointers in a single contest.

Aside from him, Johnson also produced a solid outing, tallying 16 points and three rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting. Johnson became the fifth different Hokie to lead the team in scoring, tying Hansberry for the team lead Friday. Hansberry gave the team its lone lead via a dunk with 7:20 on the clock. 22 seconds later, VCU forward Barry Evans sunk a jumper to knot the game at 27 and from there, the Rams didn't trail again for the duration of the contest.

Tech struggled on the rebounding front; no Hokie accumulated more than five rebounds. Forward Tobi Lawal was out for the second straight contest; at the time of writing, his availability for South Carolina is unknown, though Young stated after the Saint Mary's loss on Thursday that the ailment, a foot injury, is not expected to be long-term.

Despite the loss, Coach Young remains optimistic that the three-game stretch will serve the team well, remarking that its similarity to the ACC Tournament, both in timespan and in opponent quality, will serve the team well as it approaches conference play in the second half of December.

"It will serve us well," Young said. "That's tournament basketball. That's ACC tournament, that's NCAA Tournament. Back-to-back-to-back is hard. That's why you see some of these changing dramatically.

"Charleston was Thursday, Friday, take Saturday off, play Sunday. But this has been a great tournament and a great, great hospitality. That's what we signed up for. There were no surprises coming in. I do think it'll serve us well."

Virginia Tech will not play again until Tuesday, Dec. 2, when it ventures to Columbia, South Carolina to face off against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the ACC/SEC Challenge.