The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team (10-6, 4-2) fell in a back-and-forth battle at Virginia Tech (9-7, 1-4) 79-73 at Cassell Coliseum Blacksburg, Virginia Saturday night. The Irish led for a large portion of the game, but the Hokies hot shooting at the end of the game earned the home team its first ACC victory over the season.
Paul Atkinson Jr. paced the Irish offense with a Notre Dame-career high 19 points along with nine rebounds. Blake Wesley added 15 for Notre Dame while Justyn Mutts led all scorers for Virginia Tech with 24 points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Notre Dame started the game strong, building a 12-4 run behind back-to-back three pointers from Wesley, then lay ups from Atkinson Jr. and Laszewski.
Virginia Tech answered with a three pointer to stop a 10-0 Irish run. Goodwin hit one of his now patented mid range jumpers in the lane to give the Irish a 14-9 lead at the first media timeout.
The Hokies turned up the defensive pressure through the game’s next segment, but the Irish defense earned their fair share of stops on the other end. Trey Wertz hit a key three pointer off the bench to keep the Irish up 21-14 with 9:52 left in the first half.
Virginia Tech cut the Irish lead to five points at around the eight minute mark but Notre Dame answered with an Atkinson Jr. post score then a Goodwin three to push the lead back to 26-16 with 7:33 remaining.
Notre Dame’s offense continued to keep the home team at an arm’s length in the final stretch of the first half. Wesley, who scored 10 points in the first 20 minutes, drove and found a wide open Cormac Ryan in the corner for a three pointer. Ryan connected a couple minutes later on another three to put the Irish up double digits again.
The Hokies were able to cut the lead back down to six points again until Hubb hit an end-of-the-shot-clock fall back to put the lead to eight heading into the locker room.
Notre Dame’s lead was cut yet again to five early in the half, but Wesley found Goodwin open in the corner for a three pointer, then Atkinson Jr. tapped in his 13th point of the game to put the Irish back up 10 points.
Virginia Tech answered with an 8-0 run, helped by forcing the first turnover of the game by the Irish on a shot clock violation. Naheim Alleyne nailed a transition deep three pointer and the Notre Dame lead stood at 50-48 with 12:55 left.
The Hokies had a shot to take the lead, but the Irish defense held and Hubb stepped up with a tough three point play to push Notre Dame’s lead back to five points with 11:20 left.
The defensive intensity stepped up on both ends as the teams scuttled through two to three minutes without a basket. An Aktkinson Jr. spin move and a rainbow three pointer from Goodwin kept the Irish with a 58-54 advantage with 7:54 left.
Virginia Tech took its first lead with some help from the officiating crew. Aluma hit a turn around shot over Laszewski, who was whistled for a foul. The Notre Dame bench was issued a technical for arguing the call and suddenly an Irish lead became a four-point deficit after all the free throws were converted.
Wesley briefly answered with three consecutive free throws, but Alleyne drilled a three pointer with 3:36 left to give the home team its biggest lead of the game at 71-65 with 3:36 left. The Hokies connected on eight consecutive shots to seize control of the game.
After a timeout, Notre Dame cut into the lead with an Atkinson post move and a Laszewski dunk on a drive to get the home team lead down to two with 2:39 left. Hubb then tied the game with two free throws after he was fouled collecting his own missed shot.
Mutts answered with a rebound dunk to give his team a two point lead. Wesley came back to earn three free throws on a foul behind the arc and tied the game by hitting two of them.
Atkinson Jr. fouled out on the next possession and Mutts converted both shots to give his team the lead again with 1:06 left. Ryan then earned two free throws for his team, but missed them both and Virginia Tech got a three point field goal from Storm Murphy on the next possession to earn the game winning points.
Next up for the Irish will be the much anticipated MLK Classic at Howard on Monday, January 17. Notre Dame will be making its first trip to an HBCU for the 2:30 p.m. game which will be broadcast nationally on Fox