Nothing fell for Virginia Saturday afternoon at Joyce Center in South Bend, Ind. The Cavaliers (10-3, 1-1 ACC) went down double digits in the opening minutes and never took the lead from Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish (6-7, 1-1 ACC) shot an incredible 69.6 percent from the field in the first half, enough to keep Virginia out of reach.
The Cavaliers got off to a disastrous start, going down 0-13 in the first five minutes, as the Irish shot 4-for-4 from three-point range. A dunk from sophomore guard Ryan Dunn finally got Virginia on the board with 15 minutes and 2 seconds left in the half. The slow start was reminiscent of Virginia's contest against Northeastern, in which Virginia went down double digits early.
Sophomore guard Isaac McKneely tried to spark the Virginia offense by sinking a three-pointer with 12 minutes and 24 seconds left in the half. The sharpshooter came into the game shooting 49 percent from beyond the arc, but in his last three games, he was a combined 4-for-17.
Notre Dame’s offense stayed hot. Going into a TV timeout with 11 minutes and 30 seconds remaining, the Fighting Irish were shooting 87.5 percent from the field. The Cavaliers’ defense responded, forcing a shot clock violation out of the break. However, the Notre Dame buckets kept dropping — senior forward Matt Zona banked a hook shot off the glass as the shot clock expired. Virginia trailed 11-21.
On the other end, Virginia struggled to hit open shots. With 7 minutes and 52 seconds remaining in the half, sophomore guard Andrew Rohde found himself a wide open three-point opportunity but airballed, much to the Notre Dame fans’ delight. Virginia finished the game shooting 2-for-11 from deep.
In a surprising decision from Coach Tony Bennett, graduate student forward Jordan Minor checked into the game with 7 minutes and 35 seconds left. Averaging only 7.4 minutes per game going into the contest, Minor battled in the post, forcing a tough hookshot to end a Notre Dame possession. But junior guard J.R. Konieczny picked up the slack for the Fighting Irish, knocking down his fourth three of the game to extend the lead 34-16. Konieczny was a perfect 6-for-6 from the field with 17 points in the first half.
In the final minutes of the half, senior guard Reece Beekman uncharacteristically turned the ball over twice. Securing a defensive rebound with under 10 seconds left, Beekman dribbled down the full court but lost the ball out of bounds. Virginia trailed 24-41 going into the half.
The first half was defined by the sharpshooting of Notre Dame, connecting on 69.6 percent of field goal attempts and 70 percent of three-pointers.
Despite the slow start, Virginia came out of the break attacking. Dunn opened up scoring in the second half with a layup, followed up by a three-pointer from Rohde. After a stop, Rohde found Dunn baseline for a reverse layup. Despite its extensive struggles, Virginia only trailed by 10.
On the other end, Notre Dame could not keep up the hot shooting performance of the first half. Virginia went into a 1-2-2 zone, which led to a Notre Dame bucket drought of over 4 minutes until freshman guard Markus Burton sank a jump shot with 11 minutes and 40 seconds remaining. Virginia trailed 38-50.
An energy-sucking possession seemed to break down Virginia with just under 10 minutes to go. Dunn grabbed multiple offensive rebounds but could not finish in the paint. After securing his own miss, he found Beekman in the corner, who missed the three-point attempt. With less than 10 minutes remaining, Virginia had not yet surpassed Notre Dame’s first-half points total.
A pair of and-one layups put the game out of reach for the Cavaliers. First, Burton went through the chest of junior guard Taine Murray to make the score 40-60 with 8 minutes and 52 seconds to go. Minutes later, freshman forward Carey Booth finished in the paint, extending the lead to 23.
As the benches started to clear in the last several minutes, Notre Dame fans celebrated their starters, who outscored all of Virginia 76-54. Booth and Konieczny led the way with 17 points.
After the game, Bennett acknowledged the poor start derailed the Cavaliers from the opening tip. Despite past shaky starts — like that of the Northeastern matchup — resulting in victories, the Cavaliers were not able to recover in the conference opener.
“We certainly kind of took a punch early,” Bennett said. “And didn’t respond and weren’t sound enough and consistent enough to get back in that game, which was frustrating.”
Headed into tougher ACC competition, Virginia will attempt to fix their lackluster offense. Entering Saturday’s game, the Cavaliers averaged 65.8 points per game, good enough for 337th out of 362 Division 1 teams. Although Beekman is one of the premier point guards in the nation, Saturday was proof that the Cavaliers’ offense cannot run solely through the senior — Beekman played 33 minutes, tasked with matching up against the Fighting Irish’s best offensive weapons and commanding the Virginia offense.
The Cavaliers’ offense will hope to break out of their slump Jan. 3 when they will host Louisville for a 7 p.m. home matchup. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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