By Derek DeBurger

Louisville has now dropped six straight, this time at the hands of the Virginia Tech Hokies.

The Hokies came out ready to run, quickly scoring the first seven points, later pushing that lead to 13. During this time, guard Skyy Clark picked up two fouls, forcing him to the bench for most of the half. Ty-Laur Johnson essentially became the only point guard available, but he was largely ineffective due to the Hokies foregoing the three-point arc and crashing the paint. The Cardinals were severely limited offensively, unable to dish anything back to Tech.

This carried over on the defensive end; Louisville could not stop the three from flying. Virginia Tech hit eight threes in the first half alone, and 13 total for the game. Louisville trailed by as much as 23 in the first 20 minutes, and it was not looking competitive.

At the half, 31-49.

In the second half, the Cards finally started knocking down some of their open looks from three. Forward Mike James and Johnson in particular made the Hokies pay, hitting four threes in the half between them. The Cards’ defense tightened up just enough to chisel away at the deficit.

At multiple points, Louisville was able to get the lead down to at least 10 with possession, attempting to bring it to single digits. But the Cards never capitalized. Every time was the same setup: the Hokies would push the lead back up and then take their foot off the gas. Louisville may have made the game more competitive at times, but they never fully controlled it.

After yet another failed comeback attempt, Louisville loses 64-80.

Everything goes back to the defense for this team. No matter what positives you can say for the offense, the defense always puts a sour taste in your mouth.

Virginia Tech shot 48.2% from the field and 44.8% from three with only eight turnovers in the game.

The scoring for the Hokies was spread around. Five different players scored 11-plus points. For context, Tech only gave eight players meaningful minutes, so over half of those players have virtually whatever they wanted on offense.

Kenny Payne now has a coaching record of 12-50, with 34 of his 50 losses being by double-digits. Over half of the games the past two seasons—54.8%—haven’t even been competitive. That much losing takes a toll on a team, and the team right now looks spent.

Louisville is now 8-22 on the season and 3-16 in the ACC with just one game left in the regular season.

Photo Courtesy // Virginia Tech Athletics