BLACKSBURG, Va. — The last time Louisville men’s basketball played Virginia Tech, Kenny Payne walked away from the game feeling “disappointed, discouraged, hurt.”
This go-around, he should only feel disappointed.
His Cardinals on Sunday in enemy territory looked more like the team that rose to the occasion during the Empire Classic than they did during back-to-back wins over New Mexico State and Bellarmine. But they let a golden opportunity to start ACC play off on the right foot slip away.
The final score: Virginia Tech 75, Louisville 68.
Make it 20 straight losses on the road for U of L (4-4, 0-1 ACC), which controlled the game longer than the Hokies but could not pull off the kind of second-half comeback it needed to beat mid-major opponents at the KFC Yum! Center during the first month of the 2023-24 season.
The Cardinals led at halftime, 31-30, but allowed Virginia Tech (6-3, 1-0 ACC) to score seven unanswered out of the locker room to jump out in front, 38-31.
They responded with a 13-4 run, taking a 44-42 lead with 13:13 to play when Ty-Laur Johnson converted the program’s first 4-point play since Ryan McMahon did so against Wake Forest on Feb. 5, 2020.
The freshman from Brooklyn followed that up with back-to-back buckets to silence a 5-0 Hokies run and give his team a 48-47 advantage heading into the final 10:48.
But Virginia Tech proved too much to overcome down the stretch. And it beat Louisville at its own game — free-throw shooting.
The Hokies drew 14 fouls during the second half and scored 19 of its 45 points after the break at the charity stripe. They needed all of them; because U of L got to the line 15 times during the final 20 minutes and converted 13 of those chances.
The Cardinals tied a season high with five players in double figures: Johnson (10), Skyy Clark (16), Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (14), Tre White (10) and Mike James (10).
But they did not have an answer for Virginia Tech’s Lynn Kidd, who scored 19 points (11 in the second half) and helped the Hokies win the battle in the paint, 36-26.
U of L next plays at 2 p.m. Saturday against DePaul in Chicago.
This story will be updated.
Reach Louisville men’s basketball reporter Brooks Holton at [email protected] and follow him on X at @brooksHolton.