End of an Era: Irish fall to Virginia Tech in ACC Tournament
Loss marks end of 2022-23 season, end of Mike Brey era at Notre Dame
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gray/7H37IMQT6VG5VJNCVKLUVHQFLE.jpg)
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WNDU/AP) - The Notre Dame men’s basketball team lost a heartbreaker to Virginia Tech in the first round of the ACC Tournament on Tuesday night, falling to the Hokies 67-64 at the buzzer.
The loss brings an end to the 2022-23 season for the Irish (11-21), as well as the conclusion of the Mike Brey era after 23 years at the helm.
The game was tied at 64 with less than a minute to play, but then Virginia Tech (19-13) scored on a dunk and blocked Cormac Ryan’s layup attempt with 12 seconds to play.
After Virginia Tech split a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left, the Hokies blocked Marcus Hammond’s 3-pointer, then Nate Laszewski missed a 3 to end it.
Hammond scored a season-high 23 points for Notre Dame. Ryan finished with 18 points, scoring 11 of them in the second half.
Brey leaves Notre Dame with more wins than any other coach in program history (483). He led the Irish to 13 NCAA Tournament berths — including three Sweet 16 trips and two Elite Eight appearances. He also led Notre Dame to an ACC Tournament championship in 2015.
After the game, Brey said coaching at Notre Dame has been an honor.
“Unbelievably honored. 23 years, you know, I’ve been able to be the coach at Notre Dame. It’s been a flat out honor,” he said. “My bosses are here tonight, Father John and Jack Swarbrick. They’ve been amazingly supportive, even though this year didn’t go well. But I’m proud of how we’ve run the program, and I think we are going to get a heck of a coach, and I’m going to help our administration recruit the next guy.”
Copyright 2023 WNDU. All rights reserved.