Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Topples Notre Dame, Moves Back to .500 In League Play

Virginia Tech men's hoops moved back to .500 in league play with an 89-76 victory over Notre Dame Saturday.

Jan 17, 2026; Blacksburg, Va.; Virginia Tech guard Ben Hammond (3) brings the ball down the court against Notre Dame. | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

BLACKSBURG, Va. — In a Saturday showdown between two squads that entered the game located near the ACC's midpoint, it was Virginia Tech men's basketball that reigned supreme over Notre Dame. The Hokies captured their sixth ACC tilt of the season, triumphing over the Fighting Irish and leveling their record in league play back at an even .500.

handled business ✅@BburgFirstMain pic.twitter.com/3Q36dCTp9u

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 17, 2026

"I am really proud of our basketball team," said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. "I've got a game against a really good team that we need to win... For our team to respond and to play as hard as they did from the start, I think [it] is just another testament to who they are as people and the team that we're becoming. I'm quite pleased with a lot of it."

In basketball, it is imperative that a team must make their free throws when the game hangs in the balance. Last time out, in Dallas, Virginia Tech (14-5, 3-3 ACC) missed the front ends on two one-and-ones down the stretch at SMU and subsequently lost on a buzzer-beating heave by guard Boopie Miller. That kind of loss dwells for a time. How could a 50-foot heave that improbably banked in not?

"We could have moped around," Young said. "We could have been sluggish to start."

But they weren't. And they especially didn't mope around when it came to the free-throw line.

On Saturday against Notre Dame (10-7, 1-3 ACC), though, the Hokies corrected that in spades, knocking down all but four of their 32 looks from the charity stripe. Forward Tobi Lawal led the way in that department with a 14-for-18 mark from the stripe — plus 22 points and 11 rebounds.

Yet, Lawal isn't satisfied. During postgame media availabilty, he remarked that he was dwelling on his four missed free throws and that he wasn't happy with the nature of the team's victory. At the half, Lawal possessed a 10-point, five-rebound night; he then went 10-for-14 from the line in the second half to end the day with a team-high 22. Consequently, Virginia Tech entered the halftime intermission sporting a 45-34 advantage. Still, Lawal stressed that the effort didn't meet his internal standard, focusing on small details that slipped through the cracks.

"No, no, really, I'm not really happy with the way we won today," Lawal said. "I won't lie, we made a lot of mistakes that obviously everyone else can't see. They're just looking at the score. Like, yeah, we're winning. Little mistakes that we can't make... Just scouting errors.

"It's gonna be a while if I'm over here going over specifics, but it's always great to win, man. We celebrate winning around here, man, but just a lot of stuff to clean up."

Still, when one of the issues centered around missing four out of 32 free throws, it's a small note in an otherwise stellar outing. The team couldn't afford to get in its head after the loss to SMU, needing to turn around quickly and put the one-point loss in the rearview mirror. That, it did.

"I feel like we're very mature as a team," Lawal said. "So, we understand that there's no time for that. We have quick turnarounds that we have to get to. So, there's not really any time to feel sorry for ourselves."

Tech's victory came about thanks to a mostly measured effort that was spread across the lineup. Alongside Lawal's 22-point, 11-rebound night, forward Amani Hansberry was spotless on his nine free throw attempts and ended the night with 21 points, six rebounds, two assists and a trio of steals.

Then, there was guard Jailen Bedford, who poured in 14 points and four rebounds on a 6-for-15 clip, while fellow backcourt partner Ben Hammond went 6-of-11 from the field for 16 points.

And although wing Neoklis Avdalas was quiet as a scorer, finishing with eight points and showing restraint with his shot selection, his influence extended well beyond the box score. Avdalas functioned as a connective piece in the offense, piling up seven assists and repeatedly leveraging his size and vision to create advantages for others. While he did commit five turnovers, four came with Virginia Tech holding a double-digit cushion, minimizing their impact on the game’s flow.

Even amid a subdued scoring stretch in the New Year, Avdalas’ offensive ceiling still demanded attention. The threat he poses — underscored by multiple 30-point outings earlier this season — forced Notre Dame to stay attached to him on the perimeter, opening space elsewhere. His 6-foot-9 frame allowed him to survey the floor over the Irish defense and kick the ball inside or spray it out to an outside shooter, exploiting mismatches and compounding Notre Dame’s size issues.

That pressure manifested not only in clean passing lanes but also in the foul trouble that followed; Lawal and Hansberry consistently drew contact inside with the defense stretched thin. The two combined for a whopping 15 drawn fouls and 27 foul attempts, 84.4% of Tech's total trips to the line.

Due to an ankle injury that sidelined two-time All-ACC guard Markus Burton, an undersized Notre Dame entered its contest with the Hokies not just shorthanded, but lacking the balance needed to withstand sustained interior pressure. Virginia Tech capitalized on the other end, consistently forcing the Fighting Irish into foul trouble and exposing their limited frontcourt depth. Notre Dame’s only non-guard starter, forward Carson Towt, was repeatedly put in compromised defensive positions and was restrained to a 1-for-5 night from the field, as well as four fouls.

The Hokies restrained Braeden Shrewsberry, as well, holding the guard to a 3-for-10 clip from the field and an 0-for-5 mark from deep.

For Virginia Tech, the win fell into the category of the many near-50/50 games that define life in the ACC. With a league packed with teams hovering around the NCAA Tournament bubble, outcomes often hinge on narrow margins. On Saturday, the Hokies took care of business, knocking off an opponent they were slightly favored against and securing a result that could carry added weight when March arrives and postseason resumes are placed under the microscope.

As of right now, Virginia Tech's resume reads well, with the Hokies now boasting a nation-high six wins in Quadrant 2 games. Though Virginia Tech has dropped three one-possession games in the past month to Wake Forest, Stanford and SMU, the Demon Deacons and the Mustangs were either net-neutral or net-positive games for the Hokies on predictive metrics such as the NET rankings and KenPom. Even following its loss to SMU, Virginia Tech moved up four spots and sent the Mustangs down seven. Now, after a relatively comfortable 13-point lead where they led for over 37 minutes, the Hokies are well-placed to continue building onto their stellar 2025-26 campaign.

Now, the opportunity pivots towards Syracuse, another chance to add to the Hokies' 2025-26 proverbial belt. The Orange sit at No. 63 on the NET rankings, eight spots below Tech (No. 55). That belt includes notches like Tech's triple-overtime victory against then-No. 21 Virginia, plus Quad 2 victories over teams such as Providence, George Mason, California and now, Notre Dame, provided that the Fighting Irish stay in the NET's top 75.

That's happened without several key contributors at points, too. Lawal was absent for nine games and missed the entirety of the Hokies' December slate. Johnson has been out since the overtime period of Tech's Dec. 21 game in Elon and if he misses the Syracuse game, it will mark a month that the sophomore guard has been sidelined for. German center Antonio Dorn missed five straight games before reappearing for the Jan. 14 game vs. SMU; he did not play in Tech's game against the Irish today.

Then, there's Avdalas and Bedford, who missed a game apiece due to illness. Though the Hokies have dealt with attrition via injuries and have toiled through three one-score losses in the past two weeks, the response has been an encouraging one, one that leaves Young bullish on his team's prospects.

"Played a good ball, going into the half up 11," Young said. "Closed it out in the uh in the second in pretty good fashion. Ball handling [was] a little choppy. But we're good. We get to 3-3 and Syracuse, New York. Here we come."

As previously alluded to, however, the Hokies aren't satisfied. The focus pivots towards turning good into great, whether that's with a shot, a facet of the game or a response to adversity. Virginia Tech is on the precipice of entering a difficult slate; following their Jan. 21 bout with the Orange, four of their next five contests on KenPom have the Hokies saddled with a 24% or less win probabilty. Still, Virginia Tech has a fighter's chance to make the NCAA Tournament and as of yesterday morning, the Hokies were listed as the No. 73 team in ESPN's Bracketology — five spots out of the predictive 68-team field and the first team in the "Next Four Out" category.

Virginia Tech's next two challenges come on the road. First, as aforementioned, the Hokies draw Syracuse at the JMA Wireless Dome in Syracuse, New York on Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 9 p.m. ET.

Then, Virginia Tech travels south to face Louisville on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 3:30 p.m. ET. The Hokies' contest against the Orange will be carried on the ACC Network, while the Virginia Tech-Louisville game will be broadcast on The CW Network.