Notre Dame men’s basketball loses a 57-55 heartbreaker to No. 7 Virginia
Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey explained this week that despite having nothing to show for it, his Irish play looser and more confidently on the road.
And that theory and unfortunate final outcome held true again Saturday in a hard-fought 57-55 loss to No. 7 Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.
In an entertaining game that featured five ties and six lead changes in the second half, Notre Dame never led by more than two points but the Irish never quit and kept this game respectable throughout.
Trailing 57-54 with 3.9 seconds left in the game, graduate Irish guard Trey Wertz made the first of two free throws to pull Notre Dame within 57-55.
Told to intentionally miss the second foul shot to try and secure possession for a game-winning shot, Wertz worked the plan perfectly.
Following Wertz’s miss and an offensive rebound, Irish graduate guard Dane Goodwin came free for a game-winning three-point attempt from the left wing, but the shot clanked out, the buzzer sounded, and Notre Dame was still left without its first true road win this season.
Close, but …
The Irish fell to 0-8 at JPJ Arena all-time, and 0-8 in true road games this season. That said, Notre Dame has lost its previous five road games by an average of only 3.2 points and none of those by more than five points.
Two teams moving in different directions, Virginia (21-4, 13-3 ACC) has won 11 of its last 12 games while Notre Dame (10-17, 2-14 ACC) has dropped nine of its previous 10 games.
Notre Dame graduate forward Nate Laszewski continued his torrid scoring pace, leading all players with 18 points, with a team-best 8 rebounds.
Goodwin added 12 points and graduate guard Marcus Hammond added 10 points to round out Notre Dame’s double-digit scorers.
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The Irish didn’t shoot well, finishing only 20-of-51 (39.2 percent). Notre Dame’s hopes for an upset were especially undermined after missing 14 of its final 18 three-point attempts in the game.
Virginia didn’t shoot much better, finishing 19-of-52 overall (36.5 percent) and 7-of-24 from three-point range.
With the Irish playing solid defense and hanging tough, Virginia never built a double-digit lead in the game and never led by more than eight points in the second half.
In a rarity, Notre Dame actually won the bench-scoring battle 19-3, mainly because graduate guard Marcus Hammond started in place of Goodwin.
The win improved Virginia — Brey’s long-time conference nemesis — to 17-3 all-time over the Irish.
As a side note, Cavaliers graduate guard Kihei Clark tallied career assist number 684 in the game, making him Virginia’s all-time career leader.
Up next: Notre Dame returns to action on Wednesday when North Carolina (16-10, 8-7 ACC) visits Purcell Pavilion at 9 p.m, ET.
