BLACKSBURG, Va. - The University of Louisville men's basketball gutted out a tough 71-66 victory over the Virgina Tech Hokies on Tuesday night at the Cassell Coliseum Carilion Clinic

Louisville improves to 22-6 overall and 15-2 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Virginia Tech falls to 12-16 overall and 7-10 in the ACC. The win marks the sixth Cardinals win in a row and their first over the Hokies since 2021.

“I give Virginia Tech a lot of credit,” said head coach Pat Kelsey. “I have a ton of respect for Mike Young, he was dear friends with my mentor Skip Prosser. Mark Prosser, who was my associate head coach for a long time, coached under him. I played against him early in my head coaching career, and I feel like every time you play against him, you feel like you’re getting opened up and getting operated on. He is an unbelievable tactician and his kids play really hard. I thought they played really hard, they battled us. We don’t get beat on the backboard very often, and we got beat tonight, so that is a big tip of the cap to them. I give our kids a lot of credit, our players for just being resilient, being gritty, being grimy, because that’s kind of the type of game it was today. I like to think that good teams just figure out a way to win those types of games. We haven’t had a lot of games that came down to the situational basketball and things like that, it seems like, in a while, so I think that was really good for us. I thought our guys responded by getting a bunch of stops. I thought our defense really carried us today in a game where our field goal percentage was not great. We didn’t shoot it well from three, and that is always a tip of the cap and a tribute to our opponent who guarded us very, very well. Whatever we were - six for a million from three, I think - and conversely, they did shoot it very well. I thought their execution was great, but especially down the stretch, I thought our defense really carried us.”

Louisville came out of the gates firing with an 11-0 run, forcing Virginia Tech to take a timeout just three minutes into the game.

The Cards defense remained locked in early on, forcing the Hokies to turn the ball over seven times with four steals at the second media timeout.

Virginia Tech slowed down Louisville’s hot start with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 20-17 with 9:15 left on the clock. The Hokies held Louisville without a field goal for almost four minutes in the middle of the half before Chucky Hepburn ended the scoring drought with a jumper for the Cards.

Terrence Edwards Jr. battled in the paint for a layup and then converted the and-one at the charity stripe before Hepburn followed up with a layup off a defensive rebound, pushing the Louisville lead back to double figures.

The Hokies placed pressure on the Cards right out of the final timeout of the half, but it wasn’t enough for Hepburn as he sunk a three with five seconds remaining on the shot clock. Both teams were unable to make a field goal in the last two minutes of the half, giving Louisville a 34-26 lead going into the break.

The two teams traded baskets for the first seven minutes of the half with the Hokies never getting closer than eight points. Aboubacar Traore sank the and-one after his short jumper to put the Cards up by 11. Virginia Tech then went on 14-3 to run to tie the game at 53-53 with 10:32 remaining in the matchup.

The next two minutes of action were quiet, but Hepburn broke the stalemate with a layup through traffic. The Hokies immediately answered on the other end of the court with a layup with 7:28 left of regulation.

Hepburn knocked down four free throws before the Cards and Hokies traded threes, taking the game into its final media timeout.

Edwards Jr. banked a three out of the break before Virginia Tech made back-to-back layups to stop the Louisville run. A turnover by the Cards put the Hokies in position to sink a jumper and cut the deficit to one with 1:26 to go.

The Cards used an overturned possession call to their advantage as James Scott got a dunk off a missed field goal to put Louisville up three. Virginia Tech then threw the ball away on the other side of the court before the Cards turned the ball over on the following possession.

After Virginia Tech took their final timeout of regulation, J’Vonne Hadley stripped the Hokies of the ball, forcing them to foul. Reyne Smith then knocked down both of his free throws to help the Cards secure a 71-66 win.

Louisville will conclude its regular season with a three-game homestand. The first game of the stretch will be against Pittsburgh on Saturday, March 1 at the KFC Yum! Center. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2.