Farrell Leads Irish Over Eagles
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Notre Dame dominated from start to finish here against Boston College on Saturday afternoon in game it never trailed and thanks to a brilliant offensive output from Matt Farrell, the Irish secured their sixth ACC win with an 84-67 victory.
Notre Dame led by as many as 26 and controlled much of the game, but buoyed by its crowd, Boston College fought to make a game of it in the second half.
Fresh off a timeout, Boston College’s Jordan Chatman hit one of two free throws to make it 75-65. The clock ticked under three minutes and the ball was in Farrell’s hands. Farrell went into isolation mode crossed over with a jump step and rose up for his 10th three-pointer of the day to give the Irish a 78-65 lead and essentially seal the win.
Notre Dame made a couple stops on the other end and Farrell iced the game with his 36th and 37th points from the free-throw line to put Notre Dame up 15 points with 2:30 to play.
Farrell finished with a game-high 37. Notre Dame finished shooting 63 percent from the field and 61 percent from three-point territory. Martinas Geben finished with 12-points and five rebounds. TJ Gibbs played a good compliment to Farrell’s performance with 15points.
Jerome Robinson and Nik Popovic were the bright spots for Boston College. Robinson poured in 29 points and Popovic recorded a double-double with 15-points and 12 rebounds. Boston College finished shooting just 45 percent from the field and 33 percent from behind the arch.
Leading 46-30 at intermission, Notre Dame continued its dominance coming out of the break, opening the half with an 11-0 run after an easy inside bucket from Geben, a three-pointer from Gibbs, followed by a lay-up on the next possession. The early burst by the Irish forced an Eagle timeout.
Coming out of the timeout Farrell drained his ninth three-pointer to extend Notre Dame’s run to 11. Robinson got the Eagles on the board with a pair of free throws on their next possession.
Boston College was down, but not out however. With 14:07 left in the game, Geben finished a break-a-way dunk to make it 61-37, but then the Irish offense went cold. The Eagles took advantage after a mid-range jumper from Robinson, the Eagles fed of their home crowd going on a 12-0 run.
Nikola Djogo ended the almost three-minute scoreless streak with a soaring dunk. The Eagles were able to stay hot offensively down the other when Johncarlos Reyes finished a jumping hook shot in the paint. Notre Dame was able to deflect Boston College’s momentum with timely buckets, but from the 14:07 mark, the Eagles outscored the Irish 20-7 until, head coach Mike Brey took a timeout with 6:10 left in the game.
To start the game, the Irish were able to get on the board with a pass down low to Geben, who rose for a hook shot and hit it with ease over the Eagles defender.
The Eagles were able to answer with a bucket inside from their big man Popovic on their countering possession. Notre Dame answered however on their possession, Rex Pflueger pump faked on the right side of the arch, got the Boston College defender in the air and dropped in the three-pointer and Gibbs drained a triple a minute as the Irish took an 8-2 lead. After a three-pointer by Robinson, the Irish advantage would grow to 16-5 as Farrell swished two threes and converted a layup.
Chatman was able to get the Eagles a well needed bucket after Notre Dame’s momentum swing, but again the Irish answered as they did the whole first half with hot shooting.
Notre Dame went on an 8-0 run started by a dunk by Burns and finished off by two more three-pointers by Farrell to make it 24-7 in favor of the Irish with 11 minutes left in the first half.
Midway in the first half, Boston College was able to make mini-runs to get back within reach of Notre Dame. Robinson scored 15 of his 18 first-half points from the midway point in the half. Despite the mini-bursts by the Eagles, the Irish were able to go on runs of their own to keep their double-digit lead going into halftime, 46-30
Farrell finished with 26 points in the first 20 minutes on 9-for-11 shooting and 8-for-8 from three-point range. The Irish as a whole shot 67 percent from the field and from three-point range in the first-half.