It’s been a tough road for Notre Dame so far in ACC play. We knew it would probably be a tough year for the Irish, and it has only been rougher since the loss of Markus Burton to injury. On Saturday, the irish
lost to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, 89-76. It was the fourth straight loss for Notre Dame, and a game that offers no real hope for this thing to get turned around any time soon.
Irish Lose 76-89 to Virginia Tech
Brady Koehler scores a season high 17 points
BLACKSBURG, Va. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (10-8, 1-4) fell 89-76 on the road to the Virginia Tech Hokies (14-5, 3-3), who are now 11-1 on their home court in Blacksburg. The Achilles heel for the Irish today was Virginia Tech’s ability to score from the free-throw line, get into the paint, as well as their points scored off of turnovers. The Hokies shot an impressive 28-32 from the charity stripe and capitalized on Notre Dame’s 13 turnovers, scoring 20 points.
“Virginia Tech has had a great year with some tough losses, and just keep fighting and bouncing back. That’s a testament to Coach Young. He’s a good coach and one of the best men in the league. Someone I’ve admired a really long time,” Glenn & Stacey Murphy Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “They are really hard to deal with, especially when we are injured and playing smaller.”
Notre Dame finished with three players in double-digit scoring. Brady Koehler led the Irish with a career-high 17 points, shooting 5-7 from the floor and 5-6 from the free throw line. The freshman scored 15 in the second half.
Sir Mohammed recorded back-to-back games in double figures for the first time in his career. On Saturday, the sophomore dropped 12 points while also grabbing a team-best five rebounds and dishing out a team-best three assists.
Cole Certa poured in 14 points, his seventh time in double-figure scoring this season, as he knocked down three goals and went a perfect 6-6 from the free throw line.
Graduate Matt MacLellan made the most of his season-high 11 minutes as he grabbed a season-high three rebounds and scored a season-high seven points on 2-2 shooting from the floor and 3-4 shooting from the charity stripe.
The Irish shot 44 percent from the floor (27-61), while the Hokies were 51 percent from the floor on 27-53 shooting. Notre Dame shot 25 percent from three (6-24), which is 10 percent less than their average of 36 percent this season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Sir Mohammed made his fifth start of the season and converted his first two shots, including a triple. Virginia Tech started 4-6 from the field, which included two three-pointers, resulting in an early 10-7 lead for the home squad.
Virginia Tech maintained the hot hand, extending a run into a 13-2 stretch over three minutes, which included five consecutive made buckets, prompting a Notre Dame timeout down 9-18.
A great dime to Sundra in the post ended a three-minute scoring drought at 12:07. Next, Shrewsberry split a pair of defenders on a drive to the rim, soon followed by a three-pointer from Cole Certa.
Notre Dame’s defense recorded a solid stretch right here, holding Virginia Tech to no field goals for over a 4.5-minute stretch. Meanwhile, Mohammed and Koehler converted on Hokie turnovers to rally the Irish to within two, 20-22, with eight minutes left until halftime.
The Hokies responded out of the media timeout with back-to-back three-pointers, which ignited a 10-0 scoring run over a two-minute span. Ultimately, Virginia Tech outscored Notre Dame 14-5 from the eight-minute to three-minute mark.
Certa had all five of those points and went on to score eight straight for ND. At the end of his run, Mohammed added another tough drive and score to his resume to pull the Irish within nine at 30-39.
Later, back-to-back offensive rebounds from Haralson led to four straight points from the freshman to close out the half. The Irish defense stood tall on the final possession to bring us to the halftime score of 34-45.
Certa led the Irish with 11 points at the break, followed closely by Mohammed with nine. No other Irish had more than four points. On the flipside, three Hokie players were in double figures: Hammond (11), Hansberry (10) and Lawal (10).
Notre Dame shot 13-32 (.406) in the half compared to Virginia Tech’s 15-27 (.556). The Hokies were a perfect 11-11 from the stripe, while ND was 5-6. Rebounds were square at 15-all. Virginia Tech recorded 13 points off eight ND turnovers, while the Irish had nine off their seven turnovers. Points in the paint were 20-16 in favor of VT.
With the Irish down just nine points, Virginia Tech surged to a 19-point lead as a 10-0 Hokie run would give them a 60-41 advantage heading into the media timeout.
The two squads continued to swap points and while the Hokies took their largest lead of the day up 20 at 48-68 at 12:06, the Irish continued to chip away at the deficit.
Despite Notre Dame hitting some shots, they struggled to string together a run to bring it within less than 15.Down 19 with 6:44 remaining, a 7-2 Irish run, which included five straight points from Koehler, brought Notre Dame within 13 with just under five minutes on the clock.
Trading baskets on each end of the floor, there was always an answer to keep the Irish from closing the gap and one to keep Virginia Tech from further extending their lead.
Koehler would score 12 of Notre Dame’s final 17 points, and while neither team scored in the final 1:12 of play, the Irish would fall 89-76 on the road.
UP NEXT
The new and improved ACC will present another tough road challenge for Notre Dame on Wednesday, Jan. 21. That’s when the Irish will travel to Chapel Hill to take on North Carolina at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
