#3 Virginia Eases Past Notre Dame, 82-55
Virginia kept it rolling on the road Saturday at Notre Dame behind another performance in which five players scored in double figures, as the Cavaliers cruised to an 82-55 win over the Fighting Irish.
The Wahoos (18-1, 6-1 ACC) have now won seven of the eight matchups since Notre Dame joined the ACC, and were led by De’Andre Hunter’s 19 points and 7 rebounds after once again grabbing an early advantage — this time it was a 23-7 start.
Kyle Guy did most of his damage before halftime (he missed his only shot attempt in the second half), finishing with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting (3-4 3PT). Fellow junior guard Ty Jerome just barely missed his second double-double of the season, as he added 13 points, 9 rebounds (which tied a career high) and 6 assists.
Freshman point guard Kihei Clark set a new career high with his 12 points off the bench, while Mamadi Diakite matched a career high of his own with 4 blocks to go with 10 points and 7 boards.
Notre Dame (11-9, 1-6) missed its first 9 shots of the contest and UVA took advantage, scoring the game’s first dozen points before John Mooney got one to drop at the 13:35 mark of the opening half.
A Clark 3 gave the ‘Hoos a 23-7 advantage with 9:39 left in the half before Guy heated up, sinking four of the team’s next five shots — including a pair of long balls — to stretch the lead to 35-17. Guy ended the half with his third triple (with Dane Goodwin’s hand in his face), and the Cavaliers held a 42-25 halftime lead.
Jerome scored on a jumper and then a runner off the glass to start the second half, then dished one off for Hunter for a dunk off an Irish turnover to push the UVA lead to 21 two minutes in.
D.J. Harvey led a 15-6 Irish run over the next few minutes, scoring 7 of his 9 points during the stretch, which trimmed the Wahoo lead to just 12, 54-42, with still over 13 minutes remaining. ND coach Mike Brey went with a 2-3 zone that temporarily slowed the Virginia attack.
The ‘Hoos responded with 12 of the next 14 points (and a 23-5 run over the following 10 minutes) to blow it open. Diakite, Jerome and Clark were all a big part of the decisive spurt, which ballooned the lead to 30 on a Clark 3-pointer with 3:39 remaining.
Diakite took a page out of Jack Salt’s book, tapping back an offensive rebound that led to a deep Jerome 3, then later sank a 3 of his own and nearly brought the house down with a fast-break jam, but he was fouled. Jerome scored 6 points over the stretch, while Clark capped it off with 9 of his points in the final 3½ minutes of the Cavalanche, including a couple of strong drives to the hole.
The Irish shot 36 percent (22 for 61) from the field and 28 percent from long range (8 for 29). Mooney notched his ACC-leading 12th double-double of the season (15 points and 10 rebounds) to lead the home team. T.J. Gibbs and Harvey added 9 apiece, Goodwin had 8 and Prentiss Hubb had 7 off the bench.
UVA shot 52 percent for the contest (35 of 67) and 44 percent from deep (8 of 18), and won the rebounding battle, 45-33, while committing just two turnovers all day.
Guy is now tied with Mamadi Diane (2006-09) for 46th on UVA’s all-time scoring list with 1,022 career points, and has made at least one 3-ball in 19 straight games, with at least two in each of the last 10.
The Cavaliers will now travel to Raleigh to face NC State Tuesday at 7 p.m.