Dane Goodwin's Heroics Not Enough in Durham, Notre Dame Falls 68-64
Dane Goodwin fought and fought hard.
The Ohio native scored a game-high 25 points on 11-for-13 shooting, but it wasn’t enough as Notre Dame (10-16, 2-13) fell to Duke (18-8, 9-6) 68-64 on Tuesday night at Cameron Indoor.
Notre Dame cut the lead to 63-62 with 36 seconds to play and the Irish needed a stop. Duke freshman Mark Mitchell, a 36.1 percent three-point shooter, knocked in a corner three in front of the home bench with 10.8 seconds remaining to put a dagger in the Irish comeback.
“That was a great college game,” stated Mike Brey. “I’m proud of our guys. We’ve put ourselves in position a number of times, especially on the road, but we haven’t been able to get over the hump. I have to tip my cap to the young man who made the three in the corner because that’s what we wanted to give them. He made it.”
Both teams struggled from three as the Irish shot 6-fo-21 from deep, while Duke finished the night just 5-of-20, so forcing a corner three was likely the right move for Brey if he wasn’t going to foul. Yet, he made it and added another loss to the 2022-2023 campaign.
“The way the thing was clicking off, I’m thinking we may just get this back and throw it in at the buzzer,” Brey said. “I’ve been on both ends of those. It was just a weird game. We were on the verge of getting throttled.”
The bright spot of the night for Notre Dame was Goodwin. The fifth-year senior scored 19 second half points on a perfect 8-for-8 from the floor. At one point in the final 20 minutes, Goodwin had scored 17 straight points for the Irish to cut the lead to 56-52 with 4:29 left in the game.
“I guess I should have brought him off the bench earlier in the season,” Brey said of not starting Goodwin on Tuesday. “That was an unbelievable performance. He was amazing.”
Outside of Goodwin, the story was much of the same for Notre Dame as only freshman big man Ven-Allen Lubin joined the double-figure club as he scored 10 points and pulled down six boards. Notre Dame’s leading scorer Nate Laszewski, who was fresh off a 33-point effort on Saturday, was held to five points on just 1-of-4 from the floor.
Duke star freshman Kyle Filipowski didn’t score on Saturday against Virginia, but he made his presence felt from the start as he was the only Blue Devil in double figures on the night. The 7-footer scored the first two Duke buckets of the game on his way to finishing with 22 points and six rebounds.
And despite the fourth loss in a row and still searching for its first ACC win on the road, Brey was able to take in the moment where his career started in 1987.
“What a great atmosphere my last time in here coaching,” said Brey. “Just awesome.”
UP NEXT
It doesn’t get any easier for Notre Dame as the Irish will head to Charlottesville on Saturday to face No. 7 Virginia for a noon tip on ESPN2. The Hoos enter the week at the top of the ACC standings at 11-3 in the league.
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