2024-02-01 02:01:47
Veteran Notre Dame basketball teams, ranked Notre Dame teams, Notre Dame teams that have gone to Elite Eights haven’t been able to win Atlantic Coast Conference games at Virginia.
Ever.
No way one of the youngest teams in all of college basketball, one that leans hard on four freshmen, was going into John Paul Jones Arena on Wednesday and doing what no Irish team has done.
Drowns: Notre Dame men’s basketball no longer can count on an easy ACC win vs. Boston College
The Irish (7-14 overall; 2-8 ACC) showed plenty of fight, but not nearly enough as they lost for the fifth straight time and seventh time in the last nine games with a 65-53 setback.
Markus Burton scored 17 points for the Irish. Braeden Shrewsberry added 16.
Reece Beekman led Virginia with 21 points. Jacob Groves had 18 points — on six 3-pointers.
Notre Dame continued to battle the opposition — and itself. The Irish finished with 18 turnovers, three of those on shot-clock violations.
Extending the nation’s longest homecourt win streak (22 straight), Virginia looked very Virginia-like in leading nearly the entire first half and by as many as 15 after Isaac McKneeley, the second-best three-point shooter by percentages in the country, banged down a 3 to end the first half and drop the visitors into a 15-point hole (38-23) at the break.
It was Notre Dame’s largest halftime deficit in league play.
The Irish trailed by double digits the last four-plus minutes of a first half that saw them never lead. Notre Dame led by as many as 28 points and beat Virginia by 22 when the teams met at Purcell Pavilion on December 30.
After leading that game for a staggering 39:25, the Irish never led Wednesday.
Turnovers continued to be a crippling issue for the Irish, who finished the first half with as many turnovers (nine) as field goals (nine). That’s a recipe for disaster anywhere in league play, but particularly against a Virginia team that just grinds visiting opponents.
More: Notre Dame men’s basketball schedule for 2023-24 season
Notre Dame opened a three-game league road swing with a new starting lineup. Freshman Carey Booth, who had started the last nine games, which included a 17-point, nine-rebound effort in the first game against Virginia, was shuffled to the bench in favor of classmate Logan Imes, who made his first collegiate start.
Notre Dame’s road swing continues Saturday at Pittsburgh.
Follow South Bend Tribune and NDInsider columnist Tom Noie on X (formerly Twitter): @tnoieNDI. Contact: (574) 235-6153.
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