Virginia beats Irish, again
SOUTH BEND — Kihei Clark had 19 points and five assists, and No. 23 Virginia continued its dominance over Notre Dame with a 66-57 victory Wednesday night.
The Cavaliers (5-2, 1-0) improved to 12-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference openers under coach Tony Bennett and 10-0 in ACC regular-season matchups against the Fighting Irish.
Jay Huff scored 15 points for Virginia, and Sam Hauser added 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Notre Dame (3-5, 0-2) fell despite a career-high 28 points from Nate Laszewski. The junior forward hit 8 of 11 shots from the field with four 3-pointers to go with 8 of 10 at the line.
Juwan Durham added 19 points for the Irish.
The Cavaliers led from 4-2 onward and by a high of 11 points early in the second half.
Notre Dame clawed within one point twice but never drew even and was outscored 9-2 over the final three minutes.
The Irish extended their dubious program record for consecutive losses against ranked teams to 25, including 0-4 this season. They've not defeated a Top 25 club since edging No. 6 Wichita State 67-66 in November 2017. Five currently ranked teams are on ND's remaining schedule, too, although none higher than Florida State at No. 18.
The Irish are scheduled to play Saturday at Pittsburgh, but the game remains in jeopardy after the Panthers' contest against Duke on Tuesday was postponed when Pitt announced a positive COVID-19 test within its program.
Providence 71, Butler 55: David Duke had 22 points and 13 rebounds as Providence got past Butler.
Duke made 9 of 11 shots and had eight assists.
Nate Watson had 18 points for Providence (7-3, 3-1 Big East Conference), which earned its fourth straight home victory. A.J. Reeves and Jared Bynum each had 12 points.
Jair Bolden had 15 points for the Bulldogs (2-4, 1-2). Bryce Nze and Chuck Harris had 10 points apiece.