Notre Dame men's basketball lost its third game in a row on Saturday, Feb. 8, to Virginia Tech at home. Coming into the contest 8-2 at home, the Irish were in position to rebound after tough, back-to-back losses against Miami (Florida) and Florida State. The Irish were unable to hold onto double-digit leads in both the first half (14) and second half (11) and fell in the final minutes against Virginia Tech, 65-63.
The Irish began the game on a strong run, getting out to an 18-4 lead with 10:18 left in the first half. The team shot an efficient 50% from the field during this stretch, holding Virginia Tech below 20% from the field, even without making a 3-pointer. Despite the early deficit, Virginia Tech was far from giving up. With three minutes remaining in the first half, Virginia Tech battled back to bring the lead back to just one point at 27-26. However, the Notre Dame starters re-entered the game and found a late offensive rhythm to score three unanswered baskets and get the lead back to seven at 33-26, punctuated by an off-balance, contested jumper from sophomore guard Markus Burton as time expired.
After the game, junior forward Kebba Njie said, “The good teams, they get stops down the stretch, and then that fuels their offense. And so for us, I feel like that’s what we need to do.”
Experimenting with different lineups over the difficult last three games in ACC play, Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry played 11 different players in the first and second half to try and find lineups that could generate consistent production.
After the game, Shrewsberry said, “So I’m trying to get more guys in, trying to be able to play at the right pace. And the hardest thing to do is play short minutes and be really good in those short minutes, but you can be really good at effort. Effort doesn’t take anything right… I just want you to come in and sustain effort.”
Through the first eight minutes of the second half, Notre Dame again began on a 13-6 run to regain a double-digit lead at 46-35. Virginia Tech was quick to bounce back again, led by Tobi Lawal, who had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Lawal had three energy-shifting dunks from lobs that breathed life back into Virginia Tech. The Hokies finished the game shooting 39.3% from the field, which was the exact same percentage as Notre Dame on the same number of shots.
Virginia Tech would then go on a sustained, 15-6 run through the next six minutes of the game to bring the score to 52-50 with Notre Dame ahead with 6:27 left in the game. Burton knocked down a jumper from the elbow to extend the Irish lead back to 54-51 lead with 4:24 left. He finished with 23 points on 8-for-18 shooting. Virginia Tech earned its first lead of the game on a Lawal jumper that made it 55-54 with 3:06 remaining in the game. Similar to Miami, The Irish again let the lead slip away inside of five minutes left in the game and never regained it.
The Notre Dame offense went ice cold over the final three minutes and found itself facing a 5-point deficit inside of a minute left. Junior forward Tae Davis swished a 3-pointer with eight seconds left to bring his total to 18 points and the deficit back to 2, but Virginia Tech closed out the game with Brandon Rechsteiner knocking down 7 of 8 free throws in the final 30 seconds to keep the Irish from tying the game into overtime.
“I think we have tough guys,” Shrewsberry said. “We are just not getting it done right now. I deserve every bit of criticism that is coming this way. I’ll take the blame. I am the one calling the plays down the stretch.”
Notre Dame has struggled to close out the last three games against comparable teams in the ACC standings. Even with Burton’s return, Davis’s development into a 15-point per game scorer and the easiest stretch of the conference schedule, Notre Dame has seemingly lost its identity on both sides of the ball. Taking on Boston College, Louisville and SMU next, Notre Dame needs to find a way to salvage this disappointing season and help its young players gain confidence heading into the ACC Tournament. Notre Dame will travel to Chestnut Hill to face Boston College on Wednesday, Feb. 12, with hopes of breaking the losing streak.
