Notre Dame struggled in the second half the last time it played No. 20 Virginia Tech. That cost the Irish in what otherwise might have been a closer game. These teams met again Wednesday at Purcell Pavilion. Things didn’t go any better this time in a 62-51 Irish loss, extending their drought against Top 25 teams dating back to beating No. 6 Wichita State in the 2017 Maui Invitational.
The shooting issues that plagued Notre Dame last time continued in the first half of this game as it made only two field goals in the first nine-and-a-half minutes. With 5:10 remaining before halftime, the Hokies went up, 25-10, and that proved to be too much of a hole for the Irish to dig themselves out of. They did a better job of matching the Hokies in the second half, only being outscored by two points. But the deficit was in double digits practically the whole time, so any notion of entertaining a real comeback merely was a pipe dream.
The Hokies’ Nahiem Alleyne and Justyn Mutts had identical shooting lines of 7-of-14 from the field, scoring 15 and 14 points, respectively. Mutts grabbed 11 rebounds to achieve a double-double, a feat he shared with Keve Aluma (14 points, 12 rebounds). Off the bench, Hunter Cattoor scored 12 of his 13 points on four 3-pointers. He also had a game-high three steals.
Prentiss Hubb practically did all of the offensive work for the Irish, leading all scorers with 22 points on 8-of-20 shooting. No other Notre Dame player reached double figures. Dane Goodwin (eight points) and Trey Wertz (seven) both shot 0 of 4 from 3-point range on a night the Irish were 3 of 18 there. And whether or not Cormac Ryan’s absence had anything to do with this, the Irish didn’t help their cause with an 8-to-12 assist-to-turnover ratio.