Notre Dame hands an 'L' to the 'Ville
Fortitude replaced failure.
Resolve, not the familiar refrain.
Oh, and scintillating shooting coupled with an decisive 20-2 scoring binge.
All those elements and more added up to Notre Dame’s 82-70 win Saturday afternoon at Atlantic Coast Conference rival Louisville (11-8, 5-4) in front of a crowd of 16,175 at the KFC YUM! Center.
“Always when we’ve beaten Louisville it’s been a great endorsement of our program,” said Irish coach Mike Brey. “We haven’t gotten many of them down here. It was a great college basketball atmosphere. Louisville loves their basketball and I think our guys were excited to play because they knew the atmosphere. We just believed a little bit fast with them in the first half and we got the tempo a little bit more in the second half.
“This was a big day. And we talked about it; I said if we could get this one and get to five league wins, and then we’re going home for three, really puts us in a great position. And I’m really proud of our group. Our young guy (Blake Wesley) was fabulous and a star, but our old guys have really done a good job in setting the tone. I thought our seniors were just men tonight. This is the group that was going to have to do it for us.”
The Fighting Irish (12-6, 5-2 ACC), winners in eight of their last nine, trailed by as many as nine points in the first half, 42-33, but utilized a 44-25 second-half scoring edge to win this game without a last-minute sweat.
Blake Wesley, the Irish’s other-worldly freshman, poured in a game-high 22 points and was one of four Notre Dame players to hit three 3-pointers as part of the team’s 15-bomb barrage.
Dane Goodwin, Prentiss Hubb and Trey Wertz all also drilled a trio of threes as the Irish connected on 15-for-23 from behind the arc.
Those hot-shooting exploits were a must to stay steady early and then to late put away the Cardinals, who also were extremely efficient from long range. Louisville hit 10-for-21 from 3-point range – but only one of those makes came in the final 20 minutes.
Too, Notre Dame stopped freely giving away possessions. The Irish had eight first-half turnovers but finished with just 11.
“That’s a little bit of our program there offensively. And you had to weather, what’d they make nine (3-pointers) in the first half and I’m thinking to myself I don’t think they can do that the whole game,” Brey said. “And I think we can score. I’d said to our guys, we’re going to have to score 80 to get out of here today. That’s the first time we’ve had all seven guys playing well. That’s our goal. Can we get all seven really playing well? I thought our defense was better but the lightning-strike sometimes helps your defense because it can be a little bit of a punch psychologically.
“At halftime I just said, ‘Fellas, c’mon, I don’t think they’re going to throw in bombs like that all the time. Now, we’ve got 38 points and gave up way too many. Can we guard?’ I think we only gave up 25 points in the second half. We only gave up one three. We got our offense really clicking and flowing.”
Notre Dame got 15 points from its two-man bench rotation of guards Cormac Ryan and Trey Wertz, who combined for five 3-pointers. Nate Laszewski followed up his Monday double-double at Howard with seven points and six boards, but he likewise played stellar defense at times and continued to show a more assertive approach on both ends of the floor.
Goodwin and Paul Atkinson Jr. each contributed 13 points; Hubb closed with a dozen.
Every single player had a positive plus-minus rating for the Irish, who trailed 62-59 when they closed the game on an 23-8 run.
“I kept looking down the bench and I’ve said, ‘We’ve only got six tonight that are really into it. We’ve only got five tonight that are really into it,’” Brey said. “We had seven tonight. We were just subbing guys and everybody played well. Hopefully we can bottle that a little bit.”
Wesley had 12 of his 22 in the scoring binge, which also included treys from Ryan, Goodwin and an old-fashioned three-point play from Hubb.
“I think that’s a bit of his demeanor,” Brey said of Wesley. “That’s really where he’s been really mature. (Saying), ‘OK, it’s crunch-time and I can really help our team.’ And he’s fearless. The two threes were big, the drives were big and his defense on their guards.”
Now, Notre Dame returns home for a three-game stretch after playing its last three on the road – and going 2-1. The Irish host N.C. State Wednesday ( 9 p.m., regional broadcast); Virginia next Saturday (6 p.m., ACC Network) and Duke on Jan. 31 (7 p.m., ESPN).
