Irish Open Season With 84-67 Win Over UIC
Notre Dame’s (1-0) youth shined in its 84-67 opening night win over UIC (0-1) in the Joyce Center on Tuesday night.
Freshmen, Nate Laszewski, Robby Carmody, Dane Goodwin, and Prentiss Hubb combined for 38 points in significant playing time for the Irish.
Carmody was the first freshman to start since Torin Francis in 2002.
"He’s a downhill make plays unafraid guy," Brey said of Carmody. "Maybe the play that set the tone was the charge to start. He can defend, and we played around with different lineups. Even today I had second thoughts and thought we should start Elijah Burns. Robby took advantage of his opportunity.”
Over the last four minutes of regulation, UIC did their best to get back into the game with a 16-2 run sparked by five points by Tarkus Ferguson and six points from Marcus Ottey. Their two guards that make their team go.
At the 12:22 mark in the second half, Carmody sparked a 9-0 run to give the Irish some breathing room when he nabbed an offensive rebound and laid it in for two points.
After the 9-0 run, Notre Dame led 72-37 and had a commanding lead. Much of the second half before the run sparked by Carmody was back-and-forth with Notre Dame holding a comfortable lead.
“I’m pleasantly surprised and pleased," stated Brey. "We were not very good in our scrimmage against Cincinnati, and we weren’t very good last Thursday in our exhibition. I was very concerned with an older team in UIC and city guards. Our defense was a key to get us started, and I love how we drove the ball, which I think is something we’re going to have to do.
“It’s something to build on. I thought we might be in game situations and in a hard game given who UIC was and public displays to date.
The Irish, however, didn’t have the best shooting night from the field (35 percent) but relied on their aggressiveness to the basket which led to 38 free throw attempts. Notre Dame cashed-in 36 of them.
Freshman Laszewski led Notre Dame with a near double-double with 12 points and nine rebounds.
UIC shot slightly better from the field (38 percent), due to their hot shooting at the end, but much of the night they couldn’t figure out a way to score the basketball on Notre Dame’s 2-3 zone. The Irish switched from man-to-man mid-way through the first half.
Ottey led all scorers with 17 points and also added three assists.
The Irish started the game with the first two baskets of the game with back-to-back layups by John Mooney and Carmody. Early and often it was clear what the plan of attack was for the Irish, get the basketball in the paint and push the tempo.
Notre Dame jumped to an early lead to take over the game with a 16-6 run, but UIC started to fight their back after a 7-0 run led by a three-pointer by Godwin Boehen and four-points from the free-throw line via Jacob Wiley and Ottey. The Flames cut the lead to 20-15 with 10:19 left in the first half.
Sparked by back-to-back steals by Carmody, Notre Dame stopped the vicious run by UIC and started a run of their own. Carmody stole the ball at mid-court after two free-throws by Rex Pflueger and sparked a quick 8-0 to force a Frames timeout.
Notre Dame got to the free throw line much of the first half. From the time it was 28-15 with 8:48 left in the first half, the Irish scored 13 points from the free-throw line and outscored UIC, 18 to eight to end the first half with a 46-23 lead.
Notre Dame hit 23 of their 24 free throw attempts in the first half to show the aggressive nature of their offensive attack. After switching from man-to-man to a 2-3 zone with a press, the game had changed, and the Irish were able to force 10 turnovers which was the difference early on.
The Irish shot 34 percent from the field, but only misses one free-throw in the first half. TJ Gibbs led all scorers with seven points and also added two assists. Laszewski added five points and led all players with six rebounds.
UIC shot 29 percent from the field and was 1 for 13 from the three-point line. Boahen led all Flames scorers with seven points and added two rebounds.
