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Notre Dame Basketball

Cards Top Irish 82-78 In Double OT

January 16, 2018
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The Irish suffered another tough loss at home on Wednesday night this time at the hands of the Louisville Cardinals, 82-78 in double overtime. Martinas Geben had another big game with a career-high 22 points and 17 rebounds, but the Irish were unable to close out a win. The Cardinals won in South Bend for the first time since 1994.

The Irish fell to 13-6 on the season, and 3-3 in ACC play while the Cardinals improved to 14-4 and 4-1 in league play. The Irish shot 38 percent for the game and missed their last four shots from the floor. Matt Farrell returned from an ankle injury to lead the Irish with 23 points. The Cardinals shot a tick under 50 percent for the game and were led by Ray Spalding’s career-high 23 points.

The Irish attempted 38 three-pointers but only made 29 percent of them.

“I feel for our guys," Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey stated. "There’s another night we just really battled and couldn’t get over the hump. I love our group and we were a little short-handed again. We’ve got 12 league games left.”

The Irish went into the final seven minutes of the game clinging to a one-point lead before John Mooney knocked down a crucial three-pointer. The game started to go back and forth as it got closer to crunch time. The Cardinals tied the game on a second chance opportunity, and the teams went into the final TV timeout of the game knotted up at 60.

After a flurry of chances to take the lead, both teams came up empty as Farrell missed a potential go-ahead jumper at the end of regulation. The teams went into the extra session tied 62.

Ryan McMahon gave the Cardinals the first lead of overtime with a corner three-pointer. The Irish got their first points on a putback by Geben to cut the Cardinal lead to 67-64 with 3:16 to go in the overtime period. Nikola Djogo then tied it with a corner three-pointer after a huge offensive rebound. The Irish took their first lead of the extra period after Farrell found an open Geben under the basket for a dunk which gave the big man 18 points for the night. The big play gave the Irish a two-point lead with 45 seconds to go.

"We tried to go to Martinas in the post and that helped us," said Brey. "Maybe that’s who we have to become moving forward and throwing it down in there to let him go to work.”

Neither team could put the ball in the basket, and the game went into double overtime. The Cardinals struck first again in the second extra period, but the Irish quickly tied it with another Geben flush. 

The Cardinals jumped in front again midway through the overtime session. Farrell cut into the lead with a three-pointer, trimming the lead to two with under a minute left in double overtime.

The Irish out-rebounded the Cardinals 48-34 and also grabbed an incredible 26 offensive rebounds.

The Cardinals picked up right where they left off to open the half as Deng Adel drilled a corner three-pointer. Farrell finally ended the drought with a three-pointer to cut the Cardinal lead to four. Both teams began to find the shooting stroke hitting eight straight shots at one point. The Irish tied the game at 41 on a layup by T.J. Gibbs with under 15 minutes to play in the game.

Shortly after the hot stretch by both teams, they went cold again with both teams going over three minutes without points. Djogo snapped the cold streak with two free throws to give the Irish their first lead of the half. The Cardinals then took the lead back with a couple of free throws as they Irish continued to struggle from the field.

The Cardinals led by five, 50-45 at the midway point of the second half as their defense started to tighten up. Gibbs had another agenda, however, as he hit back to back three-pointer to give the Irish a one-point lead. Rex Pflueger fouled out with about seven minutes left as the Irish bench got even shorter after losing D.J. Harvey earlier in the game.

"We’re hoping it’s just cartilage," Brey said of Harvey's injury. "MRI will be tomorrow. Maybe we rest it and scope it and then he’ll be back. Hopefully, it’s not an ACL.

“There was no one around him and he grabbed it, took a dribble and went down. He was in a lot of pain. It hyperextended. It looked weird.”

In addition to Spalding’s career high in points, he also grabbed 12 rebounds, giving him eight double-doubles on the season.

Harvey got the Irish going early with a three-pointer to get the crowd on its feet. Both teams opened the game cold from the field, missing a few easy looks. Quentin Snider gave the Cardinals a seven to three lead with a three-pointer and putting an exclamation point on a 7-0 run.

The Irish snapped the run as Farrell scored on a layup, his first points since missing three games with an ankle injury. Farrell then found Geben for an alley-oop dunk and scored again on a breakaway layup to tie the game at nine with 14 minutes left in the first half.

Both teams began to find a rhythm offensively as the game started to settle in. At one point the Irish hit six straight shots, including back to back threes by Farrell to give the Irish a 17-11 advantage about midway through the half. A few nice looks from Austin Torres gave the Irish a few easy buckets, the Irish led 23-16 with 7:17 to play before the half.

A three-point play by Farrell gave the Irish a double-digit lead as they began to impose their will. Both teams began to get a little sloppy with turnovers and missed shots, but the Irish still maintained the lead. The Cardinals came back with a 10-0 run, capped off by a layup by Jordan Nwora to tie the game at 26 with just over two minutes to go in the half.

The Cardinals led at halftime, 30-28 scoring 14 of the final 16 points of the first half. Snider, Spalding, and Adel paced the Cardinals with seven points apiece, while they shot 41 percent from the field. The Irish shot 39 percent and were led by Farrell’s 15 points.

Player of the Game: Geben. The senior had perhaps his best game of the season and showed he could be a focus on offense for the rest of the season.

Unsung Hero: Farrell. The highly-anticipated return yielded some great results as Farrell looked every bit of himself with a strong despite taking a lot of shots.

Up Next: The Irish will travel to South Carolina on Saturday afternoon at 4 P.M. to face off against the Clemson Tigers.

 
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