After 20 minutes of basketball in South Bend on Thursday night, the Virginia Tech women's basketball team was halfway home to pulling off an upset on the road and collecting a huge win for their NCAA Tournament résumé. As far as the final 20 minutes went, it went as badly as it could have for Megan Duffy and her team.
Notre Dame trailed 36-30 at the break, and despite playing just six players, they roared back in the second half, outscoring the Hokies, 50-34, for an 80-70 victory. The win moved the Irish to one game behind the Hokies in the ACC standings, and when it comes to ACC Tournament seeding purposes, this one might haunt Virginia Tech.
In the second half, turnovers were the name of the game for Duffy's team, which led to their undoing.
Megan Duffy doesn't beat around the bush about loss at Notre Dame
The third quarter was Virginia Tech's undoing. For the game, they turned the ball over 21 times, which led to 29 Irish points. In the third quarter alone, 10 Hokies' turnovers led to 19 of the 25 points Notre Dame scored in the frame. After the game, Duffy explained what happened, and it is something that her team hasn't seen happen a lot this year.
"We lost our composure,'' said Duffy. "Couldn't take care of the ball. They turned it up. Whether they were fouls or not, we just lost it a little bit, and we needed our guard play to be just a little more sound."
One game after just turning the ball over eight times in a win over Virginia, the Hokies fell apart on the road and succumbed to Notre Dame's pressure. Now, Virginia Tech turns its attention to a home game against North Carolina State on Sunday afternoon in what is another major opportunity to collect a Quad 1 win for NCAA Tournament purposes.