Huff, Hauser lead No. 18 Virginia past Notre Dame

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Jay Huff scored 18 points and Sam Hauser had 15 points and nine rebounds Wednesday as No. 18 Virginia beat Notre Dame 80-68 for its fourth consecutive victory.

Huff, who is 7-foot-1, made a career-best four 3-pointers in the first half as Virginia (8-2, 4-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) opened an 18-10 lead and built it to 37-25 by halftime.

Cormac Ryan scored 16 and Trey Wertz 13 for the Fighting Irish (3-8, 0-5), who lost their fourth in a row and fell to 0-11 against Virginia in conference games. Nate Laszewski, who burned Virginia for 28 points in their first meeting, finished with 12.

Huff hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first 8 1/2 minutes as Virginia took control right away and never let up. The Irish trailed 55-33 with 13 minutes left and used a 15-5 run to get within 66-56 with 5:41 to play, but Huff scored inside and Casey Morsell hit a 3-pointer.

Morsell added 15 points and made all three of his 3-point tries.

BIG PICTURE

Notre Dame: The Irish are in trouble when their top three scorers — Laszewski (17.2), Prentiss Hubb (14.2) and Dane Goodwin (13.6) — aren't clicking. They combine to average 45 of Notre Dame's 70.6 points per game. In the first half, the trio had eight points. Trey Wertz scored 27 against Purdue, but has only played in four other games and totaled 15 points in those.

Virginia: Huff's efficiency from 3-point range helps open things up inside for Kihei Clark and others to drive and for Hauser to take mid-range jumpers. Hauser is also a good 3-point shooter and six of the top seven that saw action made at least one from deep. They finished 12 for 24 from beyond the arc. Three regulars were absent from the lineup: Tomas Woldetensae, Justin McKoy and Kadin Shedrick.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

Virginia did nothing to hurt its position, but won't get a bump for beating the struggling Irish.

UP NEXT

The Fighting Irish will face Boston College on Saturday at home.

The Cavaliers go on the road to play at Clemson on Saturday.

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