Virginia Tech survives Notre Dame in first round of ACC tournament

Jack Brizendine

Editor-In-Chief

March 7, 2023

GREENSBORO, N.C. — It wasn’t pretty by any means, but Virginia Tech got it done.

In a season of high highs and low lows for Mike Young’s team, the Hokies narrow 67-64 win on Tuesday night in the first round of the ACC Tournament couldn’t have been more fitting.

Despite four lead changes in the final minute of the game, Virginia Tech rallied to sink its final four shots and live to see another day in Greensboro.

“I think this is what you play for, moments like that,” senior forward Justyn Mutts said postgame. “We’ve been working hard the whole season. We’ve been through a lot of highs, a lot of lows, but just small moments like that — those media timeouts where you can look at your teammates and tell them ‘we’re not going out like’ this makes all the difference.”

With VT trailing by a point as the clock ticked under 60 seconds, Sean Pedulla coughed up the ball at the top of the key. Notre Dame’s Cormac Ryan scooped it up and sprinted the other way, before Pedulla snatched the ball back and lasered a pass to Justyn Mutts, who layed it in for the go-ahead score.

“I see it quite often, a bonehead play,” Tech head coach Mike Young joked. “But he [Pedulla] is going to fight like heck to make it right. Cormac was going full tilt to the other end. Kid just made a heck of a play to get to it and strip that thing out of there. That was a wild sequence but a great play from Sean.”

Mutts scored again two possessions later to give Tech a two-point advantage with 30 seconds to play. Pedulla went 1-of-2 from the charity stripe a possession later and left Notre Dame with two ticks on the clock for a potential game-tying three.

Marcus Hammond —who led all scorers with 23 points — took Notre Dame’s first shot in the final two seconds, but was stuffed by Mutts before the ball could leave his hands.

A second later Nate Laszeswki fired and missed from deep to send the Irish back to South Bend. 

VT allowed ND to shoot 43% on the day and net eight threes, but held tight on defense when it mattered most.

“That’s something we do in practice every day,” senior guard Hunter Cattoor said. “It’s winning plays, staying connected no matter what’s happened 38 minutes before that — staying locked in, coming together, staying as a fist and making plays down the stretch to win a game. 

“Justyn had a good block. Rodney [Rice] had a good block, and those plays saved the game for us. If they score those, then we’re down. So making winning plays and they’re players that win games for you.”

Following a 33-point performance against Virginia Tech in South Bend a month ago, Laszewski was held to only four points on 2-of-8 shooting.

Tech focused its defensive gameplan around stopping senior forward in the opening round of the ACC tournament, and it helped VT stay ahead of ND throughout the game.

“It was a big emphasis to get to him early,” Young said. “Our team played better defensively, [for] a lack of something sophisticated. We got to him. We made him put it on the floor. That’s a big part of it. You let him catch it and shoot it, and he’ll rip your heart out.

Virginia Tech’s defense complemented its offense well on Tuesday night, with five Hokies finishing with double-digits in the scoring column.

Leading VT was Grant Basile with 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting. The Wright State transfer helped Tech’s effort from three, knocking down a pair on five attempts. 

“Grant Basile is one heck of a basketball player,” Young said. “He is a really talented man, and I take nothing away from Grant. To have a wing man or a partner with Justyn Mutts, who is just an elite passer, is quite the duo — and those two guys have been doing great work together for quite some time now.”

Virginia Tech will have to continue to utilize the chemistry its fostered this season on Wednesday against NC State, who the Hokies lost to in Blacksburg two months ago, 73-65.

VT won’t be favored going into its matchup against NC State or any other game it may play in the rest of the week in Greensboro.

But the Hokies are playing with house money. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, Virginia Tech will be fueled by desperation as it tries to claw through the ACC tournament and embark on another championship run. 

“We all want to win really bad,” Pedulla said. “We all believe we can win the whole thing so just playing desperate down the stretch defensively is the most important thing I’d say for us.”