Logan Duncomb Leads Notre Dame Past Eastern Illinois With Perfect Shooting Night
Notre Dame (3-0) started Monday night's game against Eastern Illinois (0-3) in quite the fashion.
The Panthers jumped out to a surprising 11-0 lead in the first three minutes as Gavin Welch knocked down three triples to start his night.
That lead was short-lived, however, as Notre Dame responded with a 24-0 run to take command of the game as the Irish never looked back in the 94-70 win.
Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry didn't necessarily want to see his team start in a double-digit hole, but he liked what he saw coming out of the timeout. There wasn't a sense of panic from the Fighting Irish.
“We just needed a moment to resettle what we were doing and how we were playing,” stated Shrewberry. “We just needed a moment to reset. There wasn't a look of panic from these guys at all. They knew what it took and then responded with a nice run.”
Graduate transfer big man Logan Duncomb led the Irish with 20 points, going a perfect 9-for-9 from the field. Duncomb also added four rebounds before fouling out in the second half.
“The game didn't feel any different,” Duncomb stated. “The ball happened to come to me today. I expected this to come eventually. We've been playing well together, so I wasn't worried about it.”
Duncomb had been battling a knee injury dating back to Notre Dame's exhibition against Dayton last month. Monday could have marked a turning point, as the big man felt better heading into the contest than he had in weeks.
“Every day I'm feeling better and getting better,” Duncomb said. “I'd say today I'm feeling the best since Dayton.”
It wasn't Notre Dame's cleanest performance of the season, and Shrewsberry recognized that. Eastern Illinois made 51 percent of its field-goal attempts and shot 46 percent from beyond the arc, well above what the Panthers had produced coming into Monday's matchup.
Still, Shrewsberry wasn't overly concerned with the defensive performance, particularly with the way Notre Dame continued to create turnovers.
“Sometimes you leave a game, especially as a coach, we're all so negative all the time, explained Shrewsberry. “Then you look, 23 turnovers and we had 17 steals. I still think we could have been better defensively.”
Shrewsberry has experienced his share of ups and downs in buy games during his four seasons at Notre Dame. Monday's result was a far cry from some of those more frustrating nights.
“You know what feels worse,” Shrewsberry said. “Losing to The Citadel at home, Fort Wayne at home, Elon at home, Western Carolina at home. Those feel worse, right? Winning's hard and we're always going to celebrate winning. But it gives us a good chance to know that we still have room to grow as a group.”
Braeden Smith added 17 points, five rebounds and eight assists, while Ethan Roberts chipped in 14 points.
Notre Dame star Brady Koehler also scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds to continue his hot start to the season.
Koehler knows what it's like to lose a buy game and was proud of how the Irish responded to the early adversity.
“It was a great response,” said Koehler. “I thought the beginning it sucked. But that timeout helped us a lot. We came out, and that's more realistic for our group. We got a 24-point run. I thought we did a great job responding.”
Notre Dame big man Tommy Ahneman did leave the game with an injury and return to the court with his wrist in a brace. Shrewsberry didn’t have a definitive update following the game.
“I was still waiting to hear back,” Shrewsberry said. “I'm sure I'll hear more.”
UP NEXT: Notre Dame will return to action on Wednesday to host South Carolina State for a 7:00 PM ET tip.
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