Virginia's Road Woes Continue in Embarrassing Blowout Loss at Notre Dame

The 5-7 Fighting Irish led wire-to-wire and handed the Cavaliers a brutal 76-54 loss on Saturday in South Bend

What was just the beginning of a disturbing trend has become an undeniable catastrophe. Virginia simply cannot play well away from home. 

UVA played just its fourth game outside of the friendly confines of John Paul Jones Arena (and second true road game) and turned in another horrific performance, this time resulting in what can only be described as one of the worst losses of the Tony Bennett era of Virginia men's basketball. 

Against a team that came in with a 5-7 record that included losses to Western Carolina and the Citadel, and a team that was ranked No. 237 in the NET rankings, the Cavaliers allowed the Fighting Irish to score the first 13 points of the game and lead wire-to-wire as Notre Dame (6-7, 1-1 ACC) handed Virginia (10-3, 1-1 ACC) an embarrassing 76-54 loss on Saturday afternoon in South Bend. 

This game was a disaster right from the jump, as Notre Dame jumped out to a 13-0 lead thanks to a blistering start from junior guard J.R. Konieczny, who made three early threes, including a mid-air desperation heave that barely beat the shot clock and went in off the backboard. Coming into this game, Konieczny was averaging 9.8 points per game and shooting 22.4% from beyond the arc. In the first half alone, Konieczny hit four threes, was a perfect 6/6 from the floor, and had 17 points. 

As a team, Notre Dame came in ranked 350th (out of 362 teams) with a three-point percentage of 26.7%. The Irish made seven of their ten three-point attempts in the first half. Things on the offensive end weren't any better for the Cavaliers, who missed their first five shots and shot 36.0% from the floor. Notre Dame led 41-24 at halftime. 

For a moment, it seemed the Cavaliers had a second-half comeback in them as they stormed out of the gates with a 7-0 run to get back within 10 points, prompting a timeout from Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry. 

The Irish weathered that storm and eventually put the nail in the coffin with an 11-0 run that put things out of reach. Notre Dame's largest lead was 28 points and the game was in hand for the last nine minutes of regulation. 

Konieczny did not score a point in the second half, finishing with 17 points, but Carey Booth joined him with 17 points and freshman guard Markus Burton outplayed Reece Beekman head-to-head with 15 points and eight assists. 

Beekman had 15 points and four assists, but turned the ball over five times. Ryan Dunn had 13 points on 6/9 shooting, but the rest of the team shot 32.6% from the field. Virginia was cold from the perimeter, shooting 2/11 from three-point range. 

Notre Dame outrebounded Virginia 40-27 and outscored UVA 30-22 in the paint. But the the biggest difference was three-point shooting, as the Irish made 11 threes on 47.8% shooting. 

Read Val's Plus/Minus breakdown of the game here.

Virginia (10-3, 1-1 ACC) will have to leave this humbling loss in 2023 and hope to get back on track against Louisville on Wednesday at 7pm at John Paul Jones Arena.

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