SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame’s Nate Laszewski and Cormac Ryan combined for 50 points inside Purcell Pavilion on Saturday afternoon, but the Fighting Irish (10-15, 2-12) still fell to the Virginia Tech Hokies (15-10, 5-9), 93-87. The 87 points were the second most points the Irish have scored all season, second to their 88 points against Youngstown State.
Laszewski went off for a career high 33 points on 12-of-17 shooting, including a 6-for-9 mark from three-point range. He also grabbed a team best eight rebounds. It marked the first Irish 30-point performance since Matt Farrell dropped 37 points at Boston College on Feb. 17, 2018. The 33 points also lands him in a tie for 15th place in Brey-Era single-game point totals.
Ryan connected on 5-of-9 from deep to total 17 points, extending his career best double-digit scoring streak to six games. He’s amassed 85 points during that stretch.
For freshman Ven-Allen Lubin, make it two straight starts and two consecutive games in double figures, this time with 11 points. He also grabbed five boards.
How It Happened
The Irish produced an early 9-0 run to garner an 11-5 advantage at 15:22 as four different starters had registered buckets. Both Cormac Ryan (started 3-for-3) and Nate Laszewski (4-for-5) started hot from the field, keeping the Irish ahead at 24-17.
In fact, Laszewski connected on three treys in a row, capped at the 6:53 mark, pushing the ND lead to 29-24.
Virginia Tech would rally with a 13-2 scoring run to garner its first lead since 5-2, this time at 37-31.
JJ Starling ended the Irish scoring drought and kicked off what would be four straight made field goals to end the half, cutting the deficit to 40-43.
At the midway point, Laszewski had half of the team’s points with 20 on 7-of-10 shooting, including a 4-for-5 mark from three. The next highest point total was Ryan with eight. Both teams shot just over 50 percent from the field in the half with both sides making seven threes.
Laszewski started the second half right where he left off, scoring the team’s first eight points. By 13:29 on the clock, Laszewski had earned a new high, hitting the 30-point mark and keeping it a one-possession game, down 54-57.
Now let’s backtrack to 15:56 because that’s where the game took a turn. From that time to 3:49, Virginia Tech made 14 of their next 16 shots. Basile scored 23 of his 33 points in this stretch, as Tech pounded the ball down low. Due to the effectiveness in the paint, the Hokies built an 85-75 lead.
Now the Irish kept it close by converting 13-of-20 over a similar stretch of time but the damage had already been done. A late flurry cut the Tech lead to four with 15 seconds but then the Irish ran out of time.
Laszewski, who had such a hot hand the whole game, only had two shot attempts over the final 12 minutes of the game and one of them was with five seconds left.
As a team, the Irish shot 54.8 percent from the field and made 13 three-pointers. The Hokies won the rebound battle, 29-26, and scored 42 points in the paint.
Up Next
The Irish will venture away from Purcell Pavilion all of next week for two road games starting with a Valentine’s Day matchup at Duke. Following the matchup with the Blue Devils, the Irish will travel to Charlottesville to take on Virginia on Saturday, Feb. 18.
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