Virginia Tech Basketball: 3 biggest takeaways from upset win over Villanova

Virginia Tech Basketball got their first marquee victory of the young 2020-21 season with an upset over No. 3 Villanova in overtime.

A season ago in November, Virginia Tech Basketball faced the No. 3 Michigan State Spartans in the Maui Jim Maui Invitational. The Hokies pulled off an upset against the Spartans, 71-66, but with a completely different scoring attack.

Fast forward to Saturday night, in a short notice game in the Armed Forces Classic in the Mohegan Sun Arena against the No. 3 ranked Villanova Wildcats, Virginia Tech struck gold again in another upset, this time in overtime, with an 81-73 victory.

The Hokies got a career-high 23 points from Keve Aluma as he continues to show the growth in his game. Tyrece Radford was two points from a double-double, finishing with eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

They overcame a barrage of scoring from Collin Gillespie, who finished with a game-high 25 points, with 18 points coming in the first half, and didn’t falter, despite trailing by 52-40 with 8:51 remaining in the game.

Virginia Tech never wavered, even when senior leader Wabissa Bede fouled out with 27 seconds left in regulation. They stuck together and played for each other and it showed in the final result.

Mike Young is onto something in Year 2 at helm for the Virginia Tech Hokies. Here’s a look at the biggest takeaways from the Hokies’ upset victory over the Villanova Wildcats.