Notre Dame Cruises Past Alabama A&M
Just before the second half resumed here Sunday inside Purcell Pavilion, Notre Dame’s John Mooney boosted senior teammate T.J. Gibbs for a dunk, followed by a brief players’ huddle.
The Irish proceeded to finish off their non-conference slate with an 82-56 dispatching of visiting Alabama A&M to improve to 9-4.
But with a limited bench and 18 consecutive Atlantic Coast Conference games looming, they’ll need to continue to pick up each other if they’re going to make a run at returning to postseason play.
“I think we’re in a great spot, I think mentally and physically we’re getting healthier each day,” said senior guard T.J. Gibbs, who led all scorers with 17 points and shot 7-for-10 from the floor. “We’ve just got to keep playing. We can’t have any setbacks, we can’t have any games where it’s just like, ‘Oh, we need to be better.’
“We’ve just got to keep doing it each day. We’re maturing, and that’s the biggest thing.”
Already short-handed, Notre Dame dodged a significant potential blow to its starting front-court when Juwan Durham went down clutching his left knee and banging his fist on the court with less than eight minutes left in the game.
Durham immediately received medical attention when play was halted, hobbled to the locker room and later returned with a large ice-pack wrapped around his left knee. Notre Dame termed it a sprained knee and said he “escaped major injury.”
“I think it’s just a little slight strain and bruise; I think he was a little scared because it looked like a hyperextension, but I don’t think there’s anything there, thank God,” said Irish coach Mike Brey. “And Nik just tweaked it a little. We’ve got some time to get those guys back. They’ll be back in practice Tuesday.”
John Mooney notched his 10th double-double in 12 games this season and 31st of his career with 18 rebounds and 16 points; Durham added 11 points, five boards and five blocked shots in just 21 minutes. Prentiss Hubb added 11 as four of Notre Dame’s five starters cracked double figures.
Twice in the second half the Irish led by 30 points as they cruised to their ninth win in 10 home games.
“I think any time you lose in the fashion we did last weekend against Indiana, it’s tough,” Mooney said. “But I think it was good to bounce back like we did today with a win. We got off to a pretty good start, and then we took care of business. That was kind of our motto going into the game.”
The Irish got more strong bench production from Dane Goodwin. The sophomore guard supplied 12 of the team’s 20 bench points in 23 minutes on the floor. Notre Dame also dominated in the paint with a 36-20 scoring edge.
Neither team was particularly effective on the offensive end in the opening half, but Notre Dame turned its staunch defense --- A&M missed 22 of its first 26 field-goal attempts --- into an 18-7 lead early after back-to-back buckets from sophomore spark-plug Dane Goodwin.
The Irish eventually forged a 29-10 lead and held a 36-18 edge at the break. They had dominated inside, outscoring the Bulldogs 22-6 in the paint in the first half.
The Bulldogs (3-8), who lost their first seven road games by an average of 22 points, never trailed by fewer than 11 points across the game’s final 29 minutes.
“It just gives us a little bit more confidence going into conference, just getting back to who we are and playing the way we play,” Gibbs said. “Coming off a tough loss at Indiana, but we’ve just got to keep playing and it’s going to fall together.”
Up next is the continuation of ACC play, with three of Notre Dame’s next four games on the road. The Irish visit Syracuse on Saturday, travel to North Carolina State on January 8 and host third-ranked Louisville January 11. They conclude the quarter with a January 15 trip to Georgia Tech.
“The real bullets start Saturday (at Syracuse),” Brey said. “We’ve got 18 league games, and we talked about it, it’s one of the great challenges maybe any of us has ever signed up for, to maneuver 18 league games.
“But I think our bodies should be fine by then. I’d like to see if we can play in a road atmosphere and finish one.”
Notre Dame entered Sunday’s game with a No. 67 ranking in the KenPom.com college basketball metric while it was tabbed the No. 108 team in the NCAA’s Net Rankings.