Virginia Tech Men's Basketball Yields Late Advantage In 69-68 Loss to Stanford

The Hokies led by 12 with 138 seconds left in the game.

Jan 7, 2026; Blacksburg, Va.; Virginia Tech guard Neoklis Avdalas (17) drives with the basketball defended by Stanford guard Jeremy Dent-Smith (25). | Brian Bishop-Imagn Images

BLACKSBURG, Va. — With two minutes and 18 seconds remaining in the second half, victory looked assured Wednesday for Virginia Tech men's basketball. The Hokies appeared to be set to claim their 13th win of the season and equalize their win tally from an insipid 2024-25 campaign that saw the team not reach any postseason tournament other than their own conference tourney.

Final

Stanford 69
VT 68

— Virginia Tech Men's Basketball (@HokiesMBB) January 8, 2026

But then over the next 138 seconds of game time, an unraveling occured. The Hokies (12-4, 1-2 ACC) were outscored 14-1 by Stanford (13-3, 2-1 ACC) over the remaining 2:18 of clock, falling 69-68 and failing to raise its record back above .500 in league play.

"Disappointed with our lack of poise, disappointed with a couple of offensive possessions that that we had," said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. "Up [12 with 2:18 to go]. You're talking about kicking one and that is my responsibility. A couple of horrendous offensive possessions. Shots are too quick. We need time off the clock. We don't need more points.

"We haven't played great. I thought we were very, very good defensively. Very good defensively. But [we] sputtered."

Though Tech defeated Virginia in an 95-85 triple-overtime takedown on New Years' Eve before falling 81-78 vs. Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina on Jan. 3, this matchup carried similar strings. This time around, they still couldn't get it done, faltering down the stretch. The loss came with some parallels and differences to its game against the Demon Deacons. Virginia Tech allowed Wake Forest back into the game on Jan. 3 late but also allowed the Demon Deacons to establish themselves off the jump and put the Hokies behind the 8-ball. The result was the same: a one-possession loss that left Virginia Tech with the feeling of an opportunity missed, and likely, one squandered.

The Demon Deacons provided a prime Quad 1 opportunity for Tech, who rallied to keep the game close in the final minutes and even pulled ahead for brief stretches. Though the Stanford game placed the Hokies in the driver's seat, the result was roughly the same: a feeling of a missed opportunity that may loom large in March. After all, Stanford ranks No. 77 in KenPom following the victory, 15 spots below Virginia Tech.

Interestingly, the shared results also involve one key sequence: death by a game-winning three from a guard. This time, the Hokies' proverbial nail in the coffin came via Stanford guard Ebuka Okorie. Okorie, who led the Cardinal in scoring with 22.3 points entering the contest, was largely dormant in the first half, only making two of his six shots from the field for five points in the opening 20 minutes.

However, in the second half, Okorie caught fire, knocking down nine of his 12 shots for a total of 26 second-frame points. 11 of Stanford's final 14 points came via Okorie shots, and Okorie accounted for all but two of Stanford's final 42 points, either through points or assists.

"I thought we did a really nice job of keeping him cocooned with a hedge. Kid's a really a smart player," Young said. "He's going to make the right basketball play. In the second half, he started beating that hedge a little bit to his outside shoulder."

The final three points were a game-winning triple with 3.3 seconds left on the clock over the outstretched arms of Avdalas, sealing Stanford's 69-68 victory.

On the other end, the Hokies were paced by 21 points from Avdalas. However, that wasn't the headliner entering Wednesday's outing. Instead, it was the return of English forward Tobi Lawal. The 6-foot-8, 215-pound senior starred in his first contest since Nov. 26, the opening round of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Prior to Wednesday, Lawal had missed his previous nine contests; against Stanford, he was rusty, as anticipated. Young brought Lawal off the bench for the first time in Lawal's year-plus at Virginia Tech.

On Wednesday, Lawal tallied five points on 2-for-3 shooting from the field, chipping in three rebounds, one assist and a pair of blocks. It was a quiet night from the senior forward, as expected due to the amount of time off. Lawal was absent from the lineup for a full six weeks, missing the Hokies' entire December slate. In that time, Tech went an unblemished 6-0, with a pair of two-game skids bookending that slate. The first was the Hokies' conclusion to the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament, coming via 11-point and 18-point defeats at the hands of Saint Mary's and VCU, respectively. These last two — the three-point loss to Wake Forest, now followed up by a one-point loss to the Cardinal — may prove harder to shake.

The Hokies entered a stretch in which most matchups projected as toss-ups, needing to come out on the right side of several to improve their outlook for the NCAA Tournament. In that stretch, Virginia Tech has dropped two winnable games, clouding its probability for March Madness further. At the very least, Lawal's return gives Virginia Tech a fighting chance once the forward can get up to speed.

Hansberry moving to the five-spot due to Lawal's return took away somewhat from his malleability, but the forward was once again effective, tallying 11 points and as many rebounds. Hansberry's efforts marked the first time since Jeff Allen in 2011 that a Virginia Tech player has logged double-doubles in four straight contests.

But for Hansberry, as expected, the feeling of missing a shot at winning was the main thing on his mind following the contest.

"Means a lot, but if we don't win it, it don't mean nothing," Hansberry said. "So, last two games, took two tough losses we should have come out with, especially tonight. But just moving on to the next game."

Virginia Tech has a brief two-day respite before it continues its brief homestand, hosting California at home on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 4 p.m. ET. The contest will be available for viewing on the ACC Network as the Hokies look to improve to 13-4 against the squad that eliminated them from the first round of the 2025 ACC Tournament and by extension, ended their season.