College Hoops

Irish Clawed Back But Couldn’t Get Over Final Hump In 82-76 Loss At Virginia Tech – Notre Dame Fighting Irish – Official Athletics Website

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BLACKSBURG, Va. – With an 82-76 loss at Virginia Tech (18-13, 10-10), the Notre Dame men’s basketball team fell to 12-19 overall and 7-13 in its first ACC season under Glenn & Stacey Murphy Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry. Of its 13 league losses, seven were decided by single digits, as this young Irish squad proved to be a tough out. 

Case in point on Saturday inside Cassell Coliseum when Notre Dame fought back down seven with just under seven minutes remaining, and had a shot for the tie, but ultimately came up short. 

The Fighting Irish had two thorns in their side today – Virginia Tech’s Sean Pedulla and giving up offensive boards. Pedulla finished with a game high 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting and ended up being the dagger in the final minute when the Irish were only down two. Notre Dame also gave up 15 VT offensive boards that contributed to 17 second-chance points. 

“First off, congrats to Virginia Tech. A hard fought game against a good team. They were hard to prepare and tought to deal with. They are so good offensively and we gave them extra chances,” Glenn & Stacey Murphy Notre Dame Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “They wanted it more and all those offensive rebounds killed us.”

Markus Burton continued to do Markus Burton things with a team high 24 points on 10-of-20 shooting. Burton scored 17 points in the second half. It marked his fourth 20+ point performance over the last five games and his ninth overall on the year. Burton also recorded four rebounds, four assists and one steal. 

Burton now has 535 points on the season, which breaks the Notre Dame freshman scoring record, blowing by Troy Murphy’s 519. 

Tae Davis produced 13 points, 11 of which came in the second half. Davis has been solid down the final stretch, as he picked up his fifth consecutive game in double figures. Davis also reeled in a team high six rebounds. 

Braeden Shrewsberry and Julian Roper II tallied 10 and 11 points, respectively. It marked Roper’s first double-digit scoring performance since Georgetown on Dec. 16. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

Virginia Techs first three made buckets were triples as they jumped out to a 10-5 advantage just over four minutes in. Carey Booth recorded a stretch in which he made five straight points to narrow the gap, down 10-12 at 14:09. 

Yet, soon after, the Hokies fired off an 8-0 run to go up 22-12 after an 8-for-14 start from the field, compared to Notre Dame’s 3-for-9. 

However, the Irish would…

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