Notre Dame began its real ACC schedule at home Saturday against Virginia, a program that has been receiving Top 25 votes. You would have been forgiven had you chosen to opt out of viewing this game. But if you had, you would have missed the Irish’s biggest win of the season. They never trailed in a 76-54 upset victory.
The Irish (6-7, 1-1) scored the game’s first 13 points, and nearly five minutes passed before the Cavaliers (10-3, 1-1) got on the board. From there, it was a perfect display of offensive and defensive execution. The Irish got good looks when they had the ball and frustrated the Cavaliers by staying in front of the ball and taking care of it when it was up for grabs. At halftime, they were shooting an obscene 69.6% from the field.
The second half began with the Cavaliers scoring seven unanswered points to cut the deficit to 10. After [autotag]Micah Shrewsberry[/autotag] called a timeout, the Irish got back on track and never allowed the game to get any closer than that. By the time they increased their lead to 20 with less than nine minutes to go, it was clear that there would be no collapse on their part.
[autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] scored all 17 of his points in the first half, making all six of his field-goal attempts, including four from 3-point range, during that time. He was kept out of the scoring column in the second half but grabbed seven of his eight rebounds in that frame.
[autotag]Carey Booth[/autotag] also scored 17 and came within a rebound of a double-double. [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] also flirted with a double-double by picking up 15 points and a game-high eight assists. [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] had 10 points and six boards. [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] briefly exited with an injury but returned to the game to record five rebounds and make his only shot attempt.
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