Virginia Tech's six-game losing streak was ended by contributions from all over the team on Thursday.

The Hokies are now going to try and carry some of this firepower into their Sunday afternoon game against Navy at Blacksburg, Va.

Virginia Tech (4-6), which had been on a downward spiral, lost to five teams from power conferences, including Vanderbilt at home and Pitt last week. The Hokies lost 74-64 at home to Jacksonville, a team from the ASUN Conference. They needed a win.

They got it on Thursday, when North Carolina A&T visited. The Hokies won 95-67, despite shooting 50 percent and dominating the glass with a 48-30 margin. 55 of the Hokies' points came from their bench.

Ben Hammond scored 17 points and had five steals, four assists and six 3-pointers. All told, 11 players scored.

Virginia Tech Coach Mike Young stated, "It was a really nice night for our bench and we need it moving forward."

Young was happy that his team had 16 assists out of 20 field goals made in the first halves. The Hokies made 16 mistakes, which was not all good. Starting point guard Brandon Rechsteiner (8.3 points, 3.5 assists per game) had four.

You can't kick the ball from the quarterback or the point guard. Young said, "I've never seen that in 23 years. I'm going to hammer this home or I'll be kicked off the planet Earth."

The Hokies play their penultimate game of the non-conference season against Navy (3-7), who has suffered three consecutive losses.

The Midshipmen lost 69-64 to NJIT in a game played on December 7, despite Donovan Draper's career day. The forward tied his career-high of 16 rebounds while scoring a personal best 22 points (10-of-17).

Ed DeChellis, Navy coach and athletics director at the Academy of Military Arts, said: "I thought Draper was a good player." "He was very active and drove the ball and got to the rim."

Austin Benigni, who averages 17.2 points per game and 4.6 assists while shooting 39.1 % from the 3-point range, is the Navy's offensive leader. Aidan Kehoe averages 10 points and 7.9 boards.

Virginia Tech has two players who score in double figures. Tobi Lawal (11.7ppg) is one of them. Mylyjael Poeat (10.5) is the other.

Field Level Media

(source: Reuters)