Irish go quietly at Clemson in more ways than one in 87-64 road rout
Whatever magic the Notre Dame men’s basketball team concocted for coach Mike Brey’s final home game in Wednesday night’s 88-81 ambush of Pitt quickly evaporated.
And spending hours on a snowy airport tarmac Friday waiting for a flight to take off that was eventually canceled might not have been the worst part of the weekend.
Maybe that was as good a reason as any for Brey opting out of the postgame press conference from his last-ever regular-season game in 23 years with the Irish, following an 87-64 drubbing by host Clemson at Littlejohn Coliseum that the Irish (11-20, 3-17 ACC) were never in.
In fact, Notre Dame was already in an 11-3 hole with 15:25 left in the first half before the ACC Network switched over from coverage of the Pitt-Miami showdown that ran over. It was 20-3 before the Irish answered the run.
All five Clemson starters scored in double figures, with Hunter Tyson (16 points, 13 rebounds) reaching a double-double by halftime. The Tigers (22-9) locked up the No. 3 seed and a double-bye in the upcoming ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament that tips off Tuesday in Greensboro, N.C.
Clemson shot 51 percent from the field, canned 13 3s and dominated the boards (45-31) in easily denying Notre Dame its first and only road win of the season. The Tigers led by as many as 27, and their 87 points were the second-most surrendered by the Irish defense this season.
Tuesday night’s tourney-opening opponent, 11th-seeded Virginia Tech (18-13), put up 93 in a six-point win over ND on Feb. 11.
The Irish are the 14th-seed in the 15-team tournament and meet the Hokies at 7 p.m. EST Tuesday (ACC Network).
Notre Dame eventually flew into Greenville, S.C., on Saturday morning, got to their hotel at around noon EST and arrived for a shootaround roughly seven hours before the 8 p.m. tipoff.
In extremely un-Breylike fashion, 11 Irish saw playing time Saturday night — a group that did not include still-injured freshman guard JJ Starling (knee).
Grad senior Cormac Ryan led Notre Dame with 19 points, with classmate Nate Laszewski adding 12 and junior Matt Zona a career-high 10 points.
“We built a good lead, but then did another nice job of holding it,” said Clemson coach Brad Brownell, who elected to attend his press conference. “That’s not easy to do in college basketball.
“You play a team like Notre Dame, who’s got so much 3-point firepower that if you make a couple of mistakes, give up a transition basket or two and a couple of 3s, it flips on you. But I thought our guys did a nice job defensively and fought. And we just executed very well in our offensive game.”
ACC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
SCORES/SCHEDULE
AT GREENSBORO, N.C.
(All Times EST)
FIRST ROUND
Tuesday
No. 12 Florida State (9-22) vs. No. 13 Georgia Tech (14-17), 2 p.m., ACC Network
No. 10 Boston College (15-16) vs. No. 15 Louisville (4-27), 4:30 p.m., ACC Network
No. 11 Virginia Tech (18-13) vs. No. 14 Notre Dame, 7 p.m., ACC Network
SECOND ROUND
Wednesday
No. 8 Syracuse (17-14) vs. No. 9 Wake Forest (18-13), noon, ESPN
12/13 winner vs. No. 5 Pitt (21-10), 2:30 p.m., ESPN
10/15 winner vs. No. 7 North Carolina (18-12), 7 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU
11/14 winner vs. No. 6 NC State (22-9), 9:30 p.m., ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNU
QUARTERFINALS
Thursday
No. 1 Miami (24-6) vs. 8/9 winner, noon, ESPN or ESPN2
No. 4 Duke (23-8) vs. 5-12/13 winner, 2:30 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2
No. 2 Virginia (23-6) vs. 7-10/15 winner, 7 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2
No. 3 Clemson (22-9) vs. 6-11/14 winner, 9:30 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2
SEMIFINALS
Friday
Semifinal, 7 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2
Semifinal, 9:30 p.m., ESPN or ESPN2
CHAMPIONSHIP
Saturday
Semifinal winners, 8:30 p.m., ESPN
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