Notre Dame MBB vs. Virginia Tech Box Score
The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team (22-10) saw its rally fall short against Virginia Tech (21-12), 87-80, in the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference tournament quarterfinals in Barclays Center on Thursday evening.
The Irish trailed by as many as 16 points in the game, but rallied to cut the lead to five points late in the game, but Virginia Tech answered with back-to-back contested three-point field goals and sealed the game at the free throw line.
Seniors Prentiss Hubb (23) and Cormac Ryan (20) led the Irish in scoring, both hitting season-highs in the contest. Classmate Nate Laszewski recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Keve Aluma led Virginia Tech with 20 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Hokies came out hot and took it right to the Irish and built a 14-4 lead at the first media timeout. Notre Dame helped them out with four turnovers in the game’s first five minutes while Virginia Tech connected on five of their first six shots of the game.
Hubb tried to keep the Irish in the game early with seven points, hitting his first two field goals and adding two free throws but the Hokies kept up their hot shooting and maintained a 24-12 lead with 11:09 remaining in the half.
The lead grew to 15 with 9:42 left as Notre Dame was unable to get any stops defensively. The Hokies opened the game 9-14 from the field, while the Irish were laboring at 4-11 after missing several lay ups.
After a five minutes stretch without a field goal, Notre Dame was able to muster a bit of momentum before the end of the first half. Hubb, as part of his 13 first-half points, drove through the defense, earned a foul and made the lay up for three points. Cormac Ryan then hit a pull up jumper to cut the Hokie lead to 11 at 42-31 going into the locker room.
Ryan fought to get the Irish back in the game early in the second half with seven straight points and had a clean look at a three pointer to cut the Hokie lead to seven with around 16 minutes remaining. The shot came up just short, however, and Virginia Tech came down the court, moved the ball around the Irish zone and earned a four point play to push their lead back to 14 points.
Notre Dame chipped back into the lead, cutting it to 10 twice on a Goodwin drive and Laszewski lay up, but could not get the lead into single digits as Virginia Tech held a 56-46 advantage with 11:49 left.
The Irish were finally able to get the lead under double digits at the 10 minute mark on two free throws from Ryan. A Hubb step back three cut the lead to seven at the seven-minute mark but Virginia Tech answered to push the lead back to nine points with 7:46 left.
Notre Dame had one more run in them. A Goodwin three pointer cut the lead to six at 5:30 and the Irish defense earned a stop. Two clean looks, one from Hubb and one from Goodwin from behind the arc in the same possession did not drop. The Hokies answered but Laszewski came back to earn the old-fashioned three point play and the lead was down to five with just about three minutes remaining.
There was an opportunity for the Irish to cut the lead to three just under three minutes, but a Goodwin pull up jumper came up short and Virginia Tech had the ball up five with 2:57 left.
Hunter Cattoor put the Hokies up eight with an off balance three pointer at the top of the key that rattled around the rim three times before falling. Atkinson Jr. then missed a hook shot and Cattoor followed with a 23-foot three pointer at the end of the shot clock to put his team up 11 and push the game out of reach.
NOTES
Prentiss Hubb’s 23 points in the game is a season-high for the senior point guard and the 14th 20-point game of his career • the Irish turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, but just twice in the second 20 minutes • Cormac Ryan scored a season-high 20 points for his second career 20-point game
UP NEXT
The Irish will head back to campus and await their fate in the 2022 NCAA Tournament field when the field is unveiled on Sunday, March 13, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. on CBS.