Top seed Virginia Tech, playing again without three-time ACC Player of the Year Elizabeth Kitley, shot 30 percent from the floor against a streaking Notre Dame team that took no mercy on the Hokies in an 82-53 win in the ACC Tournament semifinals on Saturday.
Notre Dame (25-6) advances to the tournament championship game on Sunday.
Virginia Tech (24-7) now has an uncomfortable eight-day wait until Selection Sunday to see what the impact of Kitley’s knee injury will have on its tournament seeding.
The Hokies, without Kitley, were able to hang around for a while against an Irish squad that had ended a 10-game Tech winning streak last week in South Bend.
But Notre Dame, which led 33-23 at the half, was able to break things open with a huge 19-2 third-quarter run, connecting on 10 of its first 13 shots from the floor.
It would be a 21-point game at the end of three. A brief Virginia Tech flurry got the Hokies to 61-46 on a three from Cayla King with 8:40 to go, but that was as close as it would get.
Georgia Amoore had 24 points for Tech, but was just 11-of-29 from the floor.
Olivia Summiel had 10 points and a game-high 18 rebounds for the Hokies.