ACC Roundup – Virginia Tech Cruises, Notre Dame Hangs On

It’s just November but the ACC keeps racking up wins.

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What is the story about?

In Wednesday’s ACC Action, Virginia Tech took out Bryant, 78-61 and Notre Dame topped Bellarmine 86-79.

Freshman Christian Gurdak came off the bench and had a very productive game with 15 points on 7-9 from the floor and 8 boards. Mike Young said “[t]hat was a heck of an effort. He was as good tonight as [Antonio] Dorn was bad. He was great, he was the player of the game in my humble opinion.”

Dorn, also a freshman, started but as Young noted, did not play very well, picking up 4 fouls in 13 minutes

and scoring 5 points with 1 rebound and 2 turnovers.

Tobi Lawal had a big game with 18 points on 7-10 shooting and grabbing 13 rebounds.

Since his astonishing outburst against Providence, Neoklis Avdalas has been quieter but still effective. In this one, he had 11 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists.

Former Blue Devil Jaden Schutt had 5 points and 2 steals in 23 minutes of action.

Micah Shrewsberry is no doubt happy that the Irish beat Bellarmine and moved to 4-1, but he is almost certainly not happy that the Irish nearly blew a 22 point lead late in the second half: with just 6:50 left, Notre Dame was up 70-48, only to watch the Knights cut that lead down.

With 2:05 to go, Bellarmine was back within and with :17 left had cut the lead to just 5.

Stranger things have happened.

Still, the Irish won and got a solid game from Markus Burton, who shot 10-13/2-4 for 25. Jalen Haralson got 16 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Carson Towt continues to rebound well with 11 and also had 12 points.

This will change soon, possibly even Thursday night, but as of now, Duke, UNC, SMU, Virginia Tech, NC State, Stanford, Syracuse and Virginia are all undefeated. Cal, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Pitt, FSU, Miami and Wake Forest all have just one loss each. Only BC, with a record of 3-2, has more than one loss.

Cumulatively then, the ACC has lost just 10 games so far and, by our count, won 72. And a record of 72-10 is pretty good.

Three games set for Thursday as Jeff Capel and Pitt face fellow former Blue Devil Johnny Dawkins’ UCF in Daytona Beach, Elon travels to Miami and Wake Forest gets Texas Tech in the Baha Mar Championship in Nassau. The winner almost certainly will get Purdue after the Boilermakers dispense with Memphis.

Thursday’s ACC Action