Don’t blame Micah Shrewsberry for being uncomfortable with a 12-point halftime lead in Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena.
The head coach of Notre Dame’s men’s basketball program saw his team squander a 10-point lead at NC State and a 17-point lead at Syracuse in the past three weeks. And no Notre Dame coach had ever left a road game in Charlottesville with a victory over Virginia in nine previous tries.
“We haven't played well on the road,” Shrewsberry said. “We've had opportunities. We were up double figures in NC State. We're up double figures in Syracuse. We gotta finish games. We gotta capitalize better.”
Notre Dame put those troubles behind with a 74-59 win Saturday night. A sharp-shooting offensive performance, which included 12 3-pointers, allowed the Irish (9-10, 3-5 ACC) to pick up their first ACC road win of the season.
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Notre Dame looked pretty good in the first half when star guard Markus Burton led the way with 15 points. The Irish shot 14-of-34 from the field in the first 20 minutes with half of those made field goals coming from behind the 3-point arc on 15 attempts. Burton made four 3s in the first half and his other three points came at the free throw line.
Notre Dame committed only one turnover in the first half while assisting on eight of its made baskets. The Irish played sound defense on everyone but Isaac McKneely. The 6-foot-4 guard scored 14 points, including four 3-pointers, while none of his teammates tallied more than three points in the half. The Cavaliers (9-11, 2-7 ACC) made just 37.9% of their shots from the field and didn’t attempt a free throw.
The Irish showed they were going to stay hot from 3 from the start of the second half. Braeden Shrewsberry and Matt Allocco scored the first two buckets of the half for the Irish from 3-point land. Then even 6-10 forward Kebba Njie drilled a 3-pointer to extend Notre Dame’s lead to 48-31 with 16:30 remaining.
“I thought we had great effort defensively in the first half,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “I thought those guys really followed the game plan. The start of the second half, I thought was big. I thought we came out with lot of great energy. To be able to go on a run instead of the other team going on the run against us, I think was really big for our kinda psyche as a team.”
Notre Dame led by as many as 27 points when Burton made a breakaway layup with 8:11 remaining. That lead was sizeable enough that a 10-run from Virginia didn’t cause too much concern.
The biggest scare of the second half came when Burton briefly went to the locker room to get his ankle examined. He returned to action later in the game.
“Just kind of rolled his ankle at the end of a drive,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “He went to stop and just kind of rolled it. He just ran back, got re-taped, and came back and finished.
“My heart stops, though, when you see that. I ask him every few minutes, are you OK? When he's asking to come out, you know something has happened. But it was very, very minor where he was able to come back and finish.”
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Freshman forward Jacob Cofie tried to get Virginia close with 15 points in the second half. But the Irish completely blanked McKneely with him missing all four of his 3-point attempts in the second half after his first half success. Notre Dame made a point to stick to McKneely in the second half.
“I'm yelling at Braeden the whole second half, stay with him,” Shrewsberry said. “Like he's at the logo, and I'm like, stay with him. Just because he can make one or two and get going and now the place gets loud, teammates start getting going, they start guarding more.
“We made a small adjustment, but I think just not helping as much helped us.”
Notre Dame entered Saturday ranked No. 50 out of 355 Division I teams in 3-point shooting percentage at 36.8. But the Irish only attempted 21.6 3-pointers per game, which is good for 228th nationally. That’s why Micah Shrewsberry encouraged his team to shoot them more frequently.
With Burton, who dished three assists while scoring a game-high 21 points, and forward Tae Davis, who led the Irish with five assists with six rebounds and 16 points, continuing to be threats off the dribble, their drives helped open opportunities for others. Notre Dame finished 12-of-23 from 3 against Virginia.
“We need to find a way to get more attempts than we did,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “I think that's a credit to Markus and Tae really getting into the paint, and it forces a lot of people and forces a lot of attention on them. I thought they did a great job of finding guys and kicking it out.”
Braeden Shrewsberry hit three 3-pointers on his way to 13 points. Allocco buried a pair with eight points.
The Irish may be able to stack a few wins together when they host Georgia Tech (9-11, 3-6) on Tuesday and visit Miami (4-16, 0-9) on Saturday. Both teams are below Notre Dame in the conference standings, but the Yellow Jackets beat the Irish, 86-75, in Atlanta on Dec. 31.
Notre Dame needs to continue to emphasize defensive intensity, but the signs of progress with the Irish offense may have been the most encouraging result against a Virginia team that allows just 64.5 points per game. Micah Shrewsberry didn’t have to draw up opportunities for individuals Saturday night. The ball moved where it needed to rather than where it was designed to go.
“Now we're getting to the point, hopefully we can keep getting to this point, where it's the number’s getting called for Notre Dame,” Shrewsberry said. “Let’s get the best shot for Notre Dame. I think that's what happened. I think they just unselfishly turned one down to just keep finding the open guy.”
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