MBB: Burton too much as Hoos crumble in 74-59 loss to Notre Dame

By Scott Ratcliffe

Behind a big day from sophomore guard Markus Burton, Notre Dame made program history with a victory at John Paul Jones Arena on Saturday, defeating Virginia by a 74-59 margin.

The Fighting Irish (9-10, 3-5 ACC), who led by as many as 27 points, picked up their first-ever win in Charlottesville (0-9 previously), and their first ACC road win, period, in almost a year (Feb. 21, 2024).

Burton, the reigning conference rookie of the year, scored the first 9 points for the visitors, and wound up with his fourth 20-point performance in a row, finishing with a game-high 21.

The Cavaliers (9-11, 2-7) have now dropped six of their last seven contests and nine of the last 13, and are now 18-5 all-time (13-3 in ACC regular-season games) against the Irish.

UVA junior sharpshooter Isaac McKneely picked up where he left off in the win over Boston College earlier in the week, doing all his damage in the first 15 minutes to keep things somewhat competitive early on after Notre Dame built a quick double-digit advantage.

The Poca, W.Va., native sank his first three attempts from deep to single-handedly keep the Wahoos from avoiding a disastrous start, scoring the team’s first 9 points.

UVA’s 8-0 run got the deficit back to within 14-11 midway through the first half, but the Irish regained some separation after a Tae Davis putback followed by a three-point play made it 22-11 with 7:22 to go until halftime.

McKneely snapped the offensive drought and got into double figures with a tough drive in traffic, then later sank another 3 to make it 22-18 with 5:49 on the clock.

McKneely scored 14 of Virginia’s first 18 points, connecting on 5 of his 6 attempts, while the rest of the team was shooting 2 for 17.

The Irish pushed the lead back to 10 after a Davis drive to the hole, and then Burton added a long 3-pointer to make it 31-18 to cap a 9-0 run. Burton tacked on another tough triple moments later to extend it to a 34-20 contest.

Dai Dai Ames, who picked up a pair of early fouls and sat much of the half as a result, scored on a drive that beat the first-half buzzer, as the Hoos went into the locker room down by 12, 39-27. Everyone in a Cavalier uniform not named  McKneely combined to shoot just 6 for 22 (1 of 6 from downtown) across the opening 20 minutes.

Braeden Shrewsberry, Matt Allocco and Kebba Njie each knocked down triples to start the second half as the lead ballooned to 53-32. UVA went nearly nine minutes without a field goal until Elijah Saunders jammed home a putback with 9:11 remaining, only trimming the deficit to 21 at that point.

The JPJ crowd grew deafeningly silent after a Burton steal and easy layup made it 63-36, promoting a Ron Sanchez timeout to stop the bleeding with just over eight minutes to play.

A Jacob Cofie 3-pointer capped a late 10-0 run to cut it to 17, with 5:41 left, and then a Taine Murray corner 3 made it a 69-54 ballgame with 1:43 left, but that’s as close as it would get.

“There’s not a single fan out there that wants to win more than I do,” Sanchez admitted afterwards, “and I’m extremely disappointed in the way that the team came out, and that is on me as their head coach that I did not get them rallied up and ready to compete with their hair on fire like we needed to today, so I’ve got to do a much better job of that.”

Virginia shot just 40 percent (23 for 57) from the field, 44 percent (10 for 23) from long range and 60 percent from the charity stripe (3 for 5). The Hoos were once again outrebounded, 39-27, and gave up a dozen points on turnovers (6).

Aside from McKneely’s first-half explosion, Cofie (15 of his team-high 17 points after halftime) provided most of the scoring in the second half. Saunders (9 points, 6 rebounds) and Ames (8 points, 4 assists) also combined for 13 points after the break, but it obviously wasn’t nearly enough. McKneely went scoreless in the second half (0 for 4, all from beyond the arc). The Cavaliers were also without the services of Ishan Sharma, who sat out with an illness.

For Notre Dame, in addition to Burton, Davis had 16 points, while Shrewsberry added 13, as the Irish shot 48 percent (27 for 56) on the night, including 52 percent (12 of 23) from 3-point land and 73 percent (8 for 11) from the foul line.

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Team Notes

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

• The Cavaliers fell to 9-11 overall, 2-7 ACC
• Virginia is 8-4 at home
• UVA has allowed 70 or more points in seven games (0-7)
• Six of UVA’s losses have been by 15 or more points
• UVA trailed 39-27 at the half and has now trailed by 10 or more points at the break in five games
• Notre Dame’s 12-2 run gave them a 34-20 advantage
• UVA trailed 14-3 as Notre Dame started 3 of 5 from 3-point range
• UVA (10 3-pointers) has made six or more 3-pointers in 18 games
• UVA forced one shot clock violation (8 this season)
• Notre Dame won the rebound battle 39-27

Series Notes

• Virginia is 18-5 all-time vs. Notre Dame, including a 13-3 ACC regular-season record, in a series that dates to 1980-81
• UVA is 9-1 against the Irish in Charlottesville
• Notre Dame has a two-game win streak in the series

Player Notes

• Double Figure Scorers: Jacob Cofie (17), Isaac McKneely (14)
• Cofie scored a season-high 17 points
• Cofie reached double figures for the eighth time
• McKneely reached double figures for the 15th time (41 career)
• McKneely scored UVA’s first nine points on 3 of 3 3-pointers
• McKneely has made multiple 3-pointers in 13 games
• Ishan Sharma did not play due to an illness

UP NEXT

The Hoos travel to face last-place, winless Miami (0-9 ACC) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.