Brey Gets 394th Win With 88-58 Win Over NC State
What if I told you a week ago Notre Dame would start the second half of Wednesday game with NC State with a TJ Gibbs, Rex Pflueger, DJ Harvey, John Mooney and Martinas Geben on the floor and Mike Brey would still get his 394th win over NC State?
Well it happened as All-American forward Bonzie Colson is out eight weeks with a foot injury, and senior point guard Matt Farrell left Wednesday’s game with a sprained ankle in the first half, but the Irish grinded out an 88-58 win at Purcell Pavilion to give Mike Brey his 394th win at Notre Dame, which moves him into the top spot over Digger Phelps 393 wins.
"What a way to get to 393 and 2-0," Brey stated. "When I think about the record-breaking game, I’ll think about how we lost Bonzie Colson the day before, we lost Matt Farrell halfway through the game and our group just really responded.
"I couldn’t have been prouder of a group given what happened in the last day with Bonzie and having only one practice to talk about reinventing ourselves a little bit."
Phelps presented Brey the game ball in a ceremony following the win. It made the night for Brey to go along with Notre Dame surprising him with a banner from to hang in Purcell Pavilion.
"The banner was awesome. Having Digger out there was important. I thought it was great. He’s been really good to me and we know what he’s done for this program.
“You’re honored and a little humbled that you’ve been here 18 years and you can last long enough to be the all-time winner.”
Freshman DJ Harvey made his first start on Wednesday and finished with a career-high 17 points. TJ Gibbs led Notre Dame with 22 points and seven rebounds, while Martinas Geben ended the night with 10 points and 13 boards.
"To get a win without Matt and Bonzie, it feels really good," Harvey said. "It feels like I’m back in high school. I felt free to do whatever, but not getting outside of myself. The guys have trust in me to make the right plays and decisions. Playing with these guys makes everything easier."
The big performance from Harvey is one Brey hopes the freshman can learn from, but also gain momentum from with Colson and Farrell out.
"I thought we lost him a little bit the week before exams and then he was on his heels," explained Bery. "We were just trying to find him and get him back.
“Matt Farrell and I talked about it last night at the hotel. I said the floor is open with DJ in there and a four-man is trying to guard him. I thought he really responded well. I sure hope this jumpstarts him because he’s a gifted guy.”
Allerik Freeman led NC State with 13 points and four boards.
Notre Dame led 48-36 at halftime despite Colson and Farrell being out. The 48 points were the most Notre Dame has scored in an opening half in an ACC contest, but both teams started the second half slow as the Irish scored the only three points before the first media timeout.
"Matt has an ankle," said Brey. "I think he’ll be very questionable for Saturday. I would hope he’d be healthy to play Wednesday in Atlanta. He just twisted it and he has some swelling. It’s one of those that I don’t think will be ready for Saturday.”
The Irish outscored NC State 17-2 over the first eight minutes of the second half to take a commanding 65-38 lead. The Wolfpack offense struggled as they started the half 0-for-12 and didn’t hit its first field goal until the 11:02 mark in the second half as Lavar Batts Jr. threw down an emphatic dunk.
Wednesday was about the three-point shot for the Irish. Notre Dame made 10 three balls for the first time since February 2017 against Georgia Tech. The Irish went 11-for-25 from beyond the arc while holding NC State to just 6-for-18.
Everything went right for Notre Dame, including Austin Torres hitting a foul shot to complete a three-point play. The Irish won just about every major category on the night, which including going 19-of-25 from the foul line.
The Irish won the battle on the boards 40-31 and also points in the paint 30-24.
"We can’t be complacent," stated Harvey. "We can’t take a win like this lightly. We have to play with a chip on our shoulder. A lot of people are counting us out and we have to play hard every night."
Notre Dame started quick on Wednesday night and jumped out to a 12-7 lead over the first five minutes of the game. Pflueger and the Irish earned a standing ovation at the first media timeout as the junior guard completed an ally-oop and then a gorgeous layup off a steal.
Gibbs and Harvey led an early charge from downtown as the Irish got treys from each player in in the first two minutes of the game.
Farrell knocked in a ridiculous running three-pointer as the shot clock expired to push the Notre Dame lead to 18-12, but the Wolfpack answered with a Freeman layup and a three-ball from Hunt.
The Irish started the game 5-of-9 from downtown after another three from Farrell, and the Irish held a 25-22 advantage at the second media timeout.
Notre Dame finished the half 9-of-18 from downtown, while the Wolfpack were a solid 4-fo7. The Irish shot a hot 61 percent from the field and were led by Harvey’s 13 points.
NC State went cold for 2:12 and Notre Dame took advantage. Nic Djogo and Harvey got dunks in transition to push the lead to 30-22 with 8:18 left in the first half.
Farrell took a hard fall with 5:08 left in the half and had to leave the court with a significant limp. Gibbs and Pflueger hit back-to-back threes in 47 seconds during an 8-0 run to push Notre Dame’s lead to 41-26 with just over four minutes left in the opening half.
Harvey capped off the best half of his Notre Dame career with his third three-pointer, and it also allowed the Irish to score the most points in the first half of an ACC contest, as the record had previously been 45 points.
Gibbs finished the half with 11 points and two threes. Allerik Freeman led the Wolfpack with nine points on 4-of-5 shooting.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: DJ Harvey. In his first start, the true freshman scored a career-high 17 points to go along with three rebounds and one assist.
STAT OF THE GAME: Notre Dame hit 11 three-pointers on the night compared to just six by NC State.
WHAT'S NEXT: Notre Dame hits the road for a 3:15 p.m. ET tip with Syracuse on Saturday.
