Pedulla, Virginia Tech Outwork Notre Dame in Regular Season Finale
Defense travels.
Well, in most cases.
Micah Shrewsberry started the Notre Dame (12-19, 7-13) rebuild around defense, but the Irish failed to show up on Saturday and it led to Virginia Tech (18-13, 10-10) ending the regular season 82-76 victors.
“Hard fought game against a good team,” Shrewsberry said following the loss. “Hard to prepare for. Tough to deal with - good offensive team. They're so good offensively. If you give them extra chances, you don't have chance and that's what we did. They wanted it more. All those offensive rebounds just killed us. Can't guard them if you give them that many cracks at it."
Notre Dame didn’t have a single answer for point guard Sean Pedulla as he scored 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting from the field. Pedulla also came up with three key plays in 15 seconds with under a minute left.
Markus Burton pulled the Irish to 74-72 with 1:23 to play. Pedulla scored a layup with 52 seconds left in the game, then proceeded to block Burton on the other end and got another layup to put the Hokies up 78-72 with 37 seconds remaining. Ball game.
"Just hard to deal with when he puts his head down and drives it," Shrewsberry said of Pedulla. "He creates a lot of contact. He can get to rim and score. He can get to the free throw line. He's been doing that a lot lately and he gave us problems."
Over the first 26 games of the year, Notre Dame allowed opponents to hit the 80-point mark just once, as Auburn dropped 83 in the third game of the year. Three opponents, Syracuse, North Carolina and Virginia Tech have scored in the 80s in the last five games.
It’s worth pointing out those three games were on the road and it’s not a huge concern big picture, but the defense Notre Dame had relied on for most of the year simply wasn’t there at the end.
The Irish shot 52 percent from the field and hit seven treys to match the Hokies, but Notre Dame allowed 17 second-chance points and shot just 1-for-5 from three in the second half.
Burton, who broke the Notre Dame freshman scoring record, finished with 24 points, four rebounds and four assists. Tae Davis added 13 points and six boards, while Julian Roper II scored 11 points off the bench.
MJ Collins and Tyler Nickel both scored 15 points and went a combined 9-for-10 from the free throw line for Virginia Tech.
WRECKED ON THE GLASS
Notre Dame didn’t play its best game on the defensive end as Virginia Tech shot 44 percent for the game, but the game was lost with poor rebounding. In fact, it was a lack of effort that allowed Virginia Tech to pull down 15 offensive rebounds.
There was no better example than with just under four minutes to play. The Irish were down 68-66 and allowed Virginia Tech three offensive rebounds before Robbie Beran scored on a layup. One of those rebounds was pulled down by Pedulla on a long bounce, and somehow he came up with it between three Irish players.
“Sometimes you get stuck helping in their zoom actions or you're putting two people on the ball,” stated Shrewsberry. “A shot goes up and you end up in rotations, so it's not easy to go find a guy and box out, but you have to go do it.
"I think later on you saw a bunch of their guards - those were probably more long rebounds where a couple times we were fighting over it and they came up with it or long rebounds that went over our head because we weren't doing our job."
Virginia Tech out-rebounded Notre Dame 39-28 for the game, which makes it tough to win and especially difficult on the road regardless of the opponent.
"They just wanted it more today," explained Shrewsberry. "I don't know. You talk about it. We work on it. Rebounding is about want to. Do you want to get it? Do you not want to get it? Shot goes up, it's hit or be hit. It's your choice. Tonight, we chose to be hit. They just wanted it more."
Mylyjae Poteat got the first for Lynn Kidd, who missed the game for the Hokies. He pulled down eight boards, four of which came on the offensive glass.
OFFENSE GROWING
Notre Dame’s offense wasn’t necessarily an issue on Saturday. The Irish were efficient, including shooting 41 percent from three. Four players scored in double figures, as Braeden Shrewsberry joined Burton, Davis, and Roper with 10 points.
The Irish totaled 12 assists in the game, with eight coming in the first half. Notre Dame has had better ball movement over the last month of the year but Burton iso ball still continues to be the theme late in games.
Burton finished 10-of-20 from the field, while no other Irish player took more than eight shots. Saturday was the fifth game in a row Davis scored in double figures, but Notre Dame needs him to be more aggressive. Eight shots isn’t enough for Davis and he’ll need to be more aggressive in next week’s ACC Tourney.
The loss will also overshadow Troy Murphy’s freshman scoring record being broken by Burton, who has now scored 535 points this season. Burton should be the ACC Rookie of the Year as he’s put the team on this back all season. A big ACC Tournament could lead to some much-deserved national recognition and honors for Burton.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame will head to Washington D.C. for next week’s ACC Tournament at Capital One Arena.
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