Virginia Dispatches Notre Dame

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Malcolm Brogdon set the tone with 16 points. ~ Mike Ingalls

The Virginia men’s basketball team took the fight out of the Fighting Irish on Tuesday night in South Bend.

The Golden Domers have had plenty of company in that club so far in ACC play, though. UVa led wire to wire in a comfortable 68-53 victory against Notre Dame, the seventh time in a 7-1 ACC start that the Hoos have won by double digits. After being dismantled by Virginia, ND coach Mike Brey sounded fortunate that his team’s performance only counted once in the season standings.

“[Virginia] might be the most confident team in the league, and they thoroughly beat us down tonight. I don’t know if you ever survive 13 first half turnovers and deserve to win a game. We made some bad decisions, but they’re really good defensively and kind of imposed their will on us and broke our spirit a little bit,” Brey said. “You look at one of these [defeats], and you’re amazed it only counts as one loss.”

The Cavaliers (16-5, 7-1 ACC) set the tone early with a 13-4 run to open the game and never let the Irish (11-10, 2-6) back within 10 points after claiming a 19-9 lead at the 9:36 mark of the first half. The push to a double-digit advantage came from precision passing and pesky defense in those first 11 minutes, two trends that continued throughout the night. The Hoos had 18 assists on 28 field goals and grabbed 14 steals as part of 20 Notre Dame turnovers. The Cavs came up with 29 points off those miscues.

One of those steals helped jumpstart Virginia’s early surge. Malcolm Brogdon gave the visitors a 7-2 lead when he stole a skip pass and took it to the other end for a Statue of Liberty style slam. That was one of many steals for the sophomore. Brogdon has set new or matched previous career highs in points, 3-pointers made, steals, assists, and rebounds in the last two games for UVa. Against Notre Dame, he matched his career highs in rebounds and assists in addition to setting a new personal standard for steals. He finished with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting and added 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals.

“When we were patient, we got what we wanted. They were a little worn down and didn’t play their best game,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network. “In stretches we were good defensively and when we were sharing the ball, you saw our balance. You look at Malcolm’s stat line. That’s a pretty good stat line too.”

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Mike Tobey posted 14 points for the Hoos. ~ Mike Ingalls

Indeed, Brogdon had plenty of help Tuesday. A balanced attack led to a 53.8% shooting performance, including a scorching 60.0% effort in the first half when UVa made 15 of 25 shots. In the end, Joe Harris and Justin Anderson chipped in 9 points each, while Harris tallied 4 assists as well. Akil Mitchell had 6 points and 6 rebounds and London Perrantes put on a passing clinic en route to 4 points and 5 assists. Perrantes didn’t have a turnover in 29 minutes of action.

But it was sophomore center Mike Tobey that gave the Cavaliers an inside-out presence that ND simply couldn’t answer. He joined Brogdon in double figures with 14 points, also on 7-of-10 shooting. Tobey logged jumpers, dunks, and post hooks to make a big impact on offense.

“It felt good to have [my touch] back. I know a couple of games I was missing shots close inside, but it felt good today,” Tobey said on the Virginia Sports Radio Network.

While Virginia frequently dissected Notre Dame on the offensive end, the Pack Line defense clearly bothered the the hosts for most of the night. Zach Auguste and Demetrius Jackson led ND with 10 points each, while UVa held Eric Atkins (6 points, 3 assists) and Garrick Sherman (8 points) to 14 points combined. Atkins entered the game averaging 14.2 points, while Sherman came in at 15.2 points per game. Neither could get comfortable against Virginia’s defense.

In the first half, ND committed 13 of its 20 turnovers with several of those hiccups coming against the Wahoos’ post trap. The Irish cleaned up their turnover issues for part of the second half, but they couldn’t capitalize. The hosts shot just 35.7% (10 of 28) after intermission and finished at 42.6% (20 of 47) for the game.

Of course, that’s become a pattern so far in ACC play. The Wahoos have allowed just 55 points per game against their league foes. That’s second to only Syracuse’s 51 points per game allowed in ACC play.

“We always thrive on our defense. We practice defense in all of our practices every day so we know that when we come out our defense is going to get us wins. If we come out and start off strong, which I feel like we did today, we have a good chance of winning and we know that we do,” Perrantes said.

Final Stats