Before last night’s third round ACC tip-off, Notre Dame’s head coach, Mike Brey, acknowledged how tough it is to play against Virginia. His team had lost ten consecutive games to the Hoos, prior to their rare match-up.
The Fighting Irish used their double bye in the ACC tournament to strategize, as they dominated Virginia in their 71-58 victory, leading thirty-nine minutes of the game.
For the Irish, Bonzie Colson was a contributing factor, leading his team with 21 points. The Hoos could not find a way to stop the power forward.
What went wrong for the Cavaliers? The previous night against Pittsburgh, Kyle Guy scored a career-high 20 points. Last night, he added none, with only one attempt at a three pointer. The Irish were also able to hold London Perrantes to 3 points.
Darius Thompson and Devon Hall did step up adding 12 points each, but were unable to make up the deficit.
Virginia will now leave New York to prepare for the NCAA tournament. The team this season has had ups and downs, as they continue to try and resolve their offensive woes. Are there any possible solutions?
If Perrantes and Guy can get back to their usual scoring, in combination with Thompson and Hall’s success, that will be huge.
What could really help Virginia, is seeing more from Marial Shayok. With only thirteen minutes of playing time, he added 10 points last night. If they can get more offense from those five guys and keep up their defensive strategy, you can’t count them out of a run in the big dance just yet.
