A season-high 21 turnovers plagued Virginia Tech in its 80-70 loss at Notre Dame on Thursday night.
In their first defeat in over a month, snapping their seven-game winning streak, the Hokies (18-6, 8-4 ACC) played right into the hands of the Fighting Irish (15-8, 7-5).
“We lost our composure,” Hokies head coach Megan Duffy told Evan Hughes on the Virginia Tech Sports Network. “Couldn’t take care of the ball. They turned it up. Whether they were fouls or not, we just lost it a little bit, and we needed our guard play to be just a little more sound, step up and hit some shots, and we just didn’t do it. Give Notre Dame credit for just turning it up.”
Notre Dame turned Tech’s 21 giveaways into 29 points. The majority of those came in the third quarter, where 10 Hokies miscues led to 19 Irish points.
Tech had a 36-30 cushion at halftime, but it evaporated quickly when four consecutive turnovers from Kilah Freelon allowed Notre Dame to get out and run. In a flash, what was a seven-point margin turned into a four-point deficit on the heels of an 11-0 Irish run.
The Hokies nearly overcame it, though. Carys Baker heated up in the final minutes of the third and at the start of the fourth, knocking down three 3-pointers in five minutes, and a three-point play from Samyha Suffren knotted things up at 66 with six minutes to play.
However, Irish head coach Niele Ivey called timeout to reset her group, and things unraveled for Tech. It was outscored 14-4 the rest of the way, with two Carleigh Wenzel free throws and a Freelon layup the lone offense.
The Hokies missed 10 of their final 11 shots, and though they only had two fourth-quarter turnovers, the second was the nail in the coffin with 1:59 left. With Notre Dame on a 6-0 run and up 72-68, Freelon returned to the game and was stripped by Hannah Hidalgo, who threw the ball up ahead to Vanessa de Jesus. Her transition layup made it a six-point game.
Tech let a Quadrant 1 opportunity slip away, especially given it led for 23:19 and kept Hidalgo quiet offensively. She finished with 16 points but was 4-for-21 from the floor.
The nation’s second-leading scorer at 25.3 points per game, her first bucket came at the 8:05 mark of the second quarter. Fourteen of her points came in that period, where she made three field goals but was most productive at the line, behind an 8-for-8 mark. She only scored once in the second half.
Still, Hidalgo was impactful. She corralled seven rebounds, dished out five assists and racked up six steals. She spearheaded Notre Dame’s 2-3 zone that tallied 14 steals and won the turnover battle 21-7.
The Fighting Irish, who only play a seven-person rotation to begin with, used just six players with starting forward Malaya Cowles out with an illness. They took a hit early when Cassandre Prosper picked up three first-half fouls, too.
She bounced back, though, and scored all 14 of her points in the second half, sparking the team in the process. All six ND players finished in double figures and combined to outscore Tech 50-34 in the third and fourth quarters.
Iyana Moore and Gisela Sanchez chipped in 14 points apiece — Sanchez was more efficient on 6-for-9 shooting while Moore was 3-for-13 — and de Jesus added 11 points, five assists and did not turn the ball over. KK Bransford contributed 11 points, too.
The Hokies received solid production from their stars, but it wasn’t enough. Baker had 21 points and seven rebounds while making an 8-for-13 clip, including a 5-for-9 mark from deep, while Wenzel had 19 points and seven boards on 7-for-20 shooting.
Freelon and Nelson were effective in some ways — Freelon posted nine points and 13 rebounds while Nelson had six points and seven assists — but ultimately turned the ball over too many times. They combined for 15 of the team’s 21 miscues.
Suffren, who lifted Tech down the stretch, grabbed a career-high nine boards to go with eight points. She finished out the game with Nelson, Wenzel, Baker and Freelon.
The Hokies outrebounded the Irish 45-29, which included 14 offensive boards, but were outscored 34-24 in the paint and had just nine second-chance points. Neither made up for their 29-7 deficit in points off turnovers.
“It was a possession-by-possession game,” Duffy said. “When they went on their run, we were able to kind of get it back, and they went on one too many runs.”
Tech returns to Cassell Coliseum on Sunday for another Q1 game vs. NC State (16-7, 9-3), which swiftly handled Florida State 83-55 on Thursday night. That’s a noon ET tip on the ACC Network.
Box Score: Notre Dame 80, Virginia Tech 70