Virginia Basketball: 3 takeaways from close win at Notre Dame

In a game decided by single-digits, Virginia Basketball picked up their best win of the season over Notre Dame – and there are some positives and negatives to take away from it.

After getting blown out by Gonzaga on Saturday, Virginia Basketball bounced back with a much-needed road win to open up ACC play on Wednesday, leading the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from wire-to-wire en route to a 66-57 win.

Without a doubt, this is Virginia’s best win of the early going, but it was not pretty whatsoever.  The nine-point differential is not indicative of how close Notre Dame – a team with its own struggles – kept this game, which speaks to Virginia’s struggles against a quality opponent – and their resilience in putting this game away late.  After maintaining a six-point lead at the half (30-24), the Cavaliers extended their advantage to nine behind another stellar shooting performance.

Virginia drained 46.6% of their shots against Notre Dame, going 27-58 from the floor with a 30.8% clip from beyond the arc.  They outrebounded the Irish (35-31) and kept Notre Dame off the offensive glass, maintaining a 7-3 edge – which reflects Virginia’s dominance in second-chance points, 10-2.

For Notre Dame, this is obviously a disappointing loss for a team that has struggled – and overwhelmingly failed – in overcoming power conference competition in close games.  They have yet to suffer a loss worse than 10 points – and that has come against Michigan State, Ohio State, Duke, Purdue, and now Virginia.

For the Cavaliers, meanwhile, this game was significant in proving that Tony Bennett‘s squad can both win against quality opposition and win on the road.  Unfortunately, this game also revealed some continuing issues for Virginia – and magnified some of the problems that plagued the Cavaliers in their loss to Gonzaga.