UVA finishes an early-season home-and-home with Notre Dame on the ACC Network on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.
The TV broadcast team is Jay Alter (play-by-play) and Malcolm Huckaby (color).
And: lots of TacShaver.
(Buy some. You can shave underwater.)
The champs (7-2, 3-0 ACC) won 66-57 in South Bend back on Dec. 30, holding the Irish (3-7, 0-4 ACC) to a single field goal in the final five minutes, withstanding a bonkers night from Nate Laszewski, who had 28 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the field.
Juwan Durham added 19 on 7-of-11 shooting.
But Kihei Clark dominated his matchup with Notre Dame point guard Prentiss Hubb, who had come in averaging a team-best 16.4 points per game, but finished with four points on 1-of-8 shooting from the floor.
Clark had a team-high 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, and maybe more importantly for his team, he had five assists and no turnovers in 38 minutes.
Virginia never trailed, leading by as many as nine in the first half, settling for a 30-24 lead at the break, behind 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting from Jay Huff.
But Huff picked up a cheap second foul defending a pick-and-roll 40 feet from the basket in the final minute of the first half, then was assessed his third getting caught behind Durham on a rim run five minutes into the second half.
UVA briefly had a double-digit lead, but with Huff relegated to the bench, the Irish was able to get back into the game.
A 12-3 run over a 5:44 stretch, the final point coming on a Durham free throw after Huff’s fourth foul sent him to the bench with 9:40 to go, cut the Virginia lead to one, at 45-44.
Huff wouldn’t get back out on the floor until the under-four timeout, but the Cavaliers, with sophomore Justin McKoy filling in for Huff at the five, outscored Notre Dame 12-7 over the next 6:25 to lead 57-51 when Huff subbed back in with 3:15 to go.
A pair of Hubb free throws coming back from the media timeout would cut the lead to four, but Clark converted an and-one on Virginia’s next possession to push the lead to 60-53, and Sam Hauser answered a Durham short jumper with a three with 1:40 to go that made it 63-55.
After a defensive stop, Huff threw down a dunk from a nice dish from Clark with a minute left to push the lead back to 10, and that was it.
Story by Chris Graham
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Chris Graham
