The Hokies dropped their third straight game on Saturday night in the Midwest at Notre Dame, 74-66.
Virginia Tech (13-10, 5-7) was limited to 32 percent shooting in the second half and struggled to defend the Fighting Irish (8-16, 3-10), who hit a 54 percent clip over that same stretch.
After knocking down six of its 11 first-half 3-pointers, which helped it build up a 39-35 lead at intermission, it went cold, missing 11 of its 13 in the latter 20 minutes. At the same time, it didn’t have an answer for Notre Dame’s Markus Burton, who had 16 assists and eight rebounds. Defensively, he stole the ball six times.
Burton, a 5-foot-11 freshman, controlled the pace. On the other side, Sean Pedulla did in spurts, but the majority of his 13 points came too late. In the first 37:25 of the game, he had just four points on 1-of-5 shooting. Though he finished the game 3-of-7, his contributions came as the Irish were pulling away.
Hunter Cattoor led Tech with a game-high 18 points on a season-high seven field goals. He was 4-of-11 from behind the arc, though after nailing his first two and getting off to a 3-of-5 start, he finished 1-of-6.
Mylyjael Poteat was Tech’s most important player down low. He scored 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting while grabbing five rebounds. Robbie Beran was very good, too, with eight points and a career-high 13 rebounds. Tyler Nickel chipped in nine points, all of which came in the first half.
However, the Hokies didn’t have enough across the board. They got plenty of good looks that didn’t fall. MJ Collins, despite his team-high five assists and three rebounds, had just two points on 1-of-6 shooting. Lynn Kidd was a non-factor with two points on three shots.
Virginia Tech controlled the first half, but Notre Dame turned the game on its head after halftime. After Tech ripped off an 11-0 run over two-plus minutes, ND scored two buckets to cut the margin to four at the break.
Where things went south for Tech was when the Irish scored nine unanswered points to begin the half. Once they snatched back the lead on Braeden Shewsberry’s trey, the opening basket of the half, it felt like Tech was hanging on by a thread.
The Hokies were outscored 39-27 in the second half, in part because the Irish were 4-of-8 from downtown and had just eight total turnovers. They tied the game up at 49 with 11:28 remaining on a layup from Poteat, but a 9-0 run from Notre Dame over two minutes pushed them away for good. They never drew closer than six points again.
Tech entered Saturday with an OK résumé, though one that needed some quality wins. It did not yet have a loss to a bad team; its trip to Indiana changed that.
The Irish entered the game No. 168 in Ken Pomeroy’s ratings. In the Mike Young era, it’s up there with Tech’s worst losses. It now has four defeats to teams below 160 in that span: No. 179 Boston College (2019-20), No. 161 Georgia Tech (2022-23), No. 170 Boston College twice (2022-23) and No. 168 Notre Dame (2023-24).
After sitting at 5-4 in the ACC two weeks ago, the Hokies dropped two Quadrant 1 opportunities vs. then-No. 7 Duke and at Miami. While they still had a long shot at making some noise in March, the loss to Notre Dame effectively kills their chances.
Virginia Tech returns home on Tuesday for a rematch with Florida State, a team it lost to 77-74 in Tallahassee on Jan. 6. It’s a 9 p.m. ET tip on ESPNU. A trip to No. 3 North Carolina (Sat., Feb. 17) follows before it hosts Virginia on Big Monday (Feb. 19).
Box Score: Notre Dame 74, Virginia Tech 66