Hokies Tack on Ninth Win with 96-74 Blowout Against Western Carolina

Behind Neoklis Avdalas’s 30-point outburst, Virginia Tech improved to 9-2 on the 2025-2026 season as the Blacksburg bunch nears the end of non-conference play.

“The team handled Western Carolina’s aggressive style of play pretty good,” said Virginia Tech head coach Mike Young. “11 turnovers for us, which is a bit high. We’re second in the nation in turnovers per game coming in. We usually have more assists than we did tonight. We had some beautiful passing where we didn’t make the shot, but I thought we handled that part of it okay.”

As Virginia Tech continues its final month of 2025 play, the squad looks to take care of business in its last few non-conference matchups. For Thursday’s contest against the Western Carolina Catamounts – the first of the final trio of Tech’s non-ACC games – the Hokies made no exception as they picked up its ninth win of the 2025-2026 season.

The Hokies took early control of the first half as they jumped out to a 20-9 lead within the first 10 minutes of the game. Throughout most of the half, the maroon & orange maintained a double-digit-point lead over the Catamounts and their aggressive style of play. Tech would enter halftime with a dominating 53-34 lead.

Amani Hansberry continued his early-season dominance into the first half of Tech’s match against Western Carolina. The Hokies’ team leader in points and rebounds posted 14 points after going 6-7 on field goals in the first half against the Catamounts. Two of those buckets came off three-pointers, one of which beat the buzzer heading into halftime.

Avdalas quickly joined Hansberry in double-digit-point company, as the Greece native knocked down two three-pointers and a mid-range jumper within the first five minutes of the second half en route to 14 points with 15 minutes left to play in the match.

The second half turned out to be when Avdalas did much of his damage. He drained another 16 points on the way to his 30-piece performance. On the night, Avdalas totaled 10-17 on field goals including 4-8 from beyond the arc.

In a way, the Hokies were pretty much in cruise control the rest of the contest. Though scoring may have been dry at times, Tech was able to maintain a strong lead throughout the match. With the controlled 96-74 victory, the Hokies will aim to continue their early-season throughout December.

“We did the scouting; we knew they were a good team that was trying to come here to fight like most of the teams,” Avdalas said. “We wanted to control the game from the jump. We did a pretty good job staying at a 20-point margin. It’s good to win. It’s good to win these games and build confidence.”

Along with Avdalas’s dominance, Hansberry put on an all-around display as he totaled 18 points, six rebounds, and six assists on the night

“My mindset is to keep it simple; If I’ve got the opportunity to score, then I’ll go score,” Hansberry said. “If I’ve got the opportunity to make the right play the next play, then I’ll make the right play the next play. I try to play the game one possession at a time and have a short-term memory. If I airball, take a bad shot, or the play doesn't go my way, I just forget about it and move on to a new opportunity.”

Tyler Johnson and Ben Hammond also had rather underrated outings on the night, as the sophomore returners posted 13 points each. Hammond also had a somewhat impressive five rebounds considering his relatively small size.

Jaden Schutt continued his streak of double-digit-point games as he totaled 10 points off two three-pointers and two makes from within the arc.

Virginia Tech will look to move to double-digit wins on its 2025-2026 campaign as it takes on Maryland Eastern Shore on Sunday Dec. 14. With the beginning of conference play on the forecast for New Year’s Eve, the Hokies will look to wrap up its final two non-conference games to move to 11-2 heading into the Blacksburg edition of the season’s Commonwealth Clash against Virginia.

“Going into these non-conference games, we really just try to make it about us,” Hansberry said. “We gotta build our good habits to see our habits carry over from practice to the game and really just find ways to play hard when the arena’s quiet and we’re up 20 points and just pull together to grind those games out."