CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Jay Huff scored 18 points and led five Virginia players in double-digit scoring and the No. 18 Cavaliers beat Notre Dame 80-68 in an Atlantic Coast Conference fixture on Wednesday. Box Score
Huff Shot Well For Cavaliers
Huff made 7 of 13 shots and connected on four 3-pointers from the top of the key to help Virginia secured its fourth consecutive victory.
“I would probably say that around that area, that’s my favorite spot,” Huff, who also had five rebounds and two blocks, said about his 3-point spot. “I took a bunch of those back in my high school days. … Plus that’s kind of where they show up in the offense that we’re running.”
Sam Hauser added 15 points on 6 of 13 shooting with nine rebounds, Casey Morsell scored 15 off the bench, and Kihei Clark ended with 12 points and team-high six assists for Virginia (8-2, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which remain undefeated in conference play.
Trey Murphy III finished with 10 points and four assists in the win.
“Coming off of a 10-day quarantine, that’s really impressive to have the game that he did,” Huff said. “… My guess is that he really missed being able to get out of his room.”
Cormac Ryan paced Notre Dame with 16 points in the defeat.
Highlights: Virginia vs Notre Dame
Trey Wertz added 13 points and hit three 3-pointers, Nate Laszewski had 12 points and eight rebounds and Juwan Durham finished with 10 points, four rebounds, and two steals for the Fighting Irish (3-8, 0-5), who lost their fourth in a row.
Notre Dame, which remains winless in conference play and fell to 0-11 against Virginia in conference games after Wednesday’s defeat, shot 43.1% from the field and missed 17 of its attempts from 3-point range.
The Cavaliers led 37-25 at halftime, before extending their advantage to 57-33 with 12:22 left in the game.
The Fighting Irish rallied to trim the deficit to 68-58 with 5:08 remaining, but the home side held it together to secure the win.
Still, Virginia coach Tony Bennett wasn’t particularly pleased that his team allowed the Irish back in the game.
“I thought we drifted into some old habits defensively and that isn’t going to cut it,” Bennett said.
