Notre Dame Falls To Virginia, Loses Fourth Straight Game
Notre Dame came into their game with the #18-ranked Virginia Cavaliers looking for their first win over a ranked opponent in 26 tries. The Fighting Irish are still looking after a 80-68 loss on the road. Head coach Mike Brey drops his personal record to 1-11 against Virginia in his head coaching career.
The Irish tried to go to the block early and get big men Nate Laszewski and Juwan Durham going, and the duo combined for 16 points on 7-10 shooting in the first half. The issue for Notre Dame against the Cavaliers was the same story we see repeated over and over in this matchup, the Irish guards had a hard time putting the ball in the basket.
The starting trio of Prentice Hubb, Dane Goodwin and Cormac Ryan combined for just two points in the first half, knocking down just 1-13 shots from the field, and 0-7 from behind the three-point line. Virginia, on the other hand, went 7-14 from deep to build a 37-25 halftime lead.
Notre Dame found their offense in the second half, going toe-to-toe with Virginia but the hole was just too deep to climb out of for the Irish. Ryan came alive with 16 second half points after being held scoreless in the first, and Hubb added nine points after also going scoreless in the first.
In the second half, it was the bigs that struggled to get going in the offense, as Durham and Laszewski scored just six points combined, hitting just 1-4 shots. Durham wasn’t able to get on the scoreboard in the second going 0-2 from the field in only 13 minutes. Laszewski tallied 12 while Trey Wertz added 13 points off the bench.
After shooting an abysmal 30% from the field and 8% from three in the first half the Irish were able to bounce back with a field goal percentage of almost 60% and 44% from beyond the arc. It was actually the Irish defense that faltered in the second half, as Virginia made 17-30 shots (56.7%) in the final half. The Cavaliers shot 54.4% from the field against Notre Dame and knocked down 12-24 from behind the arc.
Virginia 7-footer Jay Huff had a team high 18 points, which included going 4-8 from deep. Four other Cavaliers were in double figures to pace a balanced offensive attack while also out-rebounding the Irish 29-27.
Notre Dame will be back in action on Saturday, January 16 at 4:00 PM ET as they welcome the Boston College Eagles to Purcell Pavilion. The Irish are still in search of their first conference win of the season.
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