Irish Halt Herd
It was all about the need Friday night for Notre Dame’s basketball team to level up.
As in maximum effort.
As in showing an ability to withstand a closer-than-expected game and still emerge victorious.
Check all the boxes.
Paced by a career-high 28 points from John Mooney, the Fighting Irish scrapped to an 74-64 win in continued play of the Men Against Breast Cancer Invitational in front of 7,831 inside Purcell Pavilion.
“One of our standards and one of our principles is being locked in, Level 5 energy, Level 5 communication, Level 5 focus for 40 minutes,” Mooney said. “Especially during crunch-time and gut-cutting time, you’ve got to do that even more, and I think we did that tonight.”
After threatening early to blow open the game, Notre Dame (3-1) had to make a number of key free throws and defensive stops in the game’s closing minutes as Marshall lost its second consecutive game by double figures after opening its season with an 67-60 win against Robert Morris.
“I’m looking as it’s coming, and I’m having a little bit of the flashbacks like, ‘Will we be tough enough to figure out how to get over the hump?’ and I thought our defensive stuff, we had some really key stops and got some loose balls,” said Irish coach Mike Brey.
The Herd late got as close as 67-61 and shot a 3-pointer that would have made it a one-possession game with less than two minutes to play. But the Irish gathered the miss and proceeded to hit seven of their final eight free-throw attempts to close out their guests.
“That we can do it,” said guard T.J. Gibbs of what Notre Dame learned in securing this win. “Last year we had trouble closing out games. This year, when we’re able to have a guy like John and we’re able to make plays for each other, P-Hubb (Prentiss Hubb) made some big plays, Rex (Pflueger) made some big plays, Dane (Goodwin) made some big plays. Just having those guys there, knowing that we each have each other’s backs is all the difference.
“We’re just more mature. We’re right in our zone. We stay at Level 5 for 40 minutes.”
Goodwin added 11 points off the bench, and Pflueger played 31 minutes, gathering six boards, five points, two assists and a steal.
Taevion Kinsey paced Marshall with 16 points in a game-high 40 minutes.
Mooney initiated an early 9-0 spurt with a three-pointer, his third in the past two games, and spurred the Irish to an 13-4 lead.
Notre Dame continued to create separation for the next 10 minutes of the opening half as it pulled on top, 25-8, on Gibbs’ 3 from the top of the key, a moment that nearly became a four-point-play opportunity after Gibbs ended up on the court during his follow-through.
However, Marshall mounted one modest flurry before the Irish regained command into the break. The Thundering Herd tightened up defensively, holding Notre Dame without a point for more than four minutes, and whittled their deficit to 31-27.
But, none other than Mr. Mooney stymied the Irish leak. Mooney scored on the block, Pflueger hit a pump-fake trey and soon, on the heels of a 9-2 sprint, the Irish led 40-29 at intermission.
Midway through this six-game homestand, Notre Dame next hosts Presbyterian on Monday (7 p.m., ACC NETWORK XTRA). The Blue Hose are 1-2 this season after generating a 20-16 campaign a year ago, when they won two games in the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament before this same Marshall squad ended their season.
