Notre Dame Falls 75-61 At Louisville
The losing streak continues for Notre Dame as Sunday marks five straight losses. The Irish yet again struggled offensively and it started early. Louisville controlled the paint and led from start to finish inside the KFC Yum! Center.
The Cardinals out-rebounded the Irish 49-30, which led to 46 points in the paint to Notre Dame’s 26. The physical play was too much for Notre Dame and Louisville was victorious 75-61 on Saturday afternoon.
Notre Dame dropped to 13-16 on the year and 3-13 in ACC play. Louisville ended its three-game losing streak and improved to 19-11 and 10-7 in ACC.
“They’re an NCAA Tournament team,” Notre Dame basketball coach Mike Brey said of Louisville. “I thought their physicality in the lane and being a little older than us in some spots won out. We were so bad from the foul line in the second half. If you’re going to make it interesting, you’re going to have to make free throws.”
With 12:55 left in regulation John Mooney hit a three-pointer to pull the Irish within six, 50-44. Moments later Vj King got an offensive rebound putback, to counter the long ball from the Mooney. King sparked a 10-2 run by Louisville to extend the lead to 14, 60-46 with 9:16 left. From that point forward the Irish ran out of gas and couldn’t overcome the deficit.
“You would think if you handle the arc like that it’d be a better game,” Brey said of the Cardinals shooting just 2-for-22 from three. “We knew they liked to shoot the three and they’ve made a bunch of threes. We got out to shooters. Now, you give up stuff around the bucket, but those count too. They can’t blow you out. You can hang around, but for us in the second half, we had it down to five to seven points and we can’t get a defensive rebound or make enough free throws to get it to one possession.”
Despite the loss, Mooney was great once again for Notre Dame. The junior captain recorded his ACC leading 18th double-double with 22 points and 13 rebounds.
Freshman Prentiss Hubb also added 16 points and added six assists. The Irish finished shooting 39 percent from the field (24-62). They also only hit four of their 14 free throw attempts.
“We can’t find a third and fourth scorer,” stated Brey. “We score 61 points all the time and even in practice every day. We can never get that sucker to 70. It’s unbelievable.”
Jordan Nwora paced Louisville with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Marcus Williams also added 16 points and 13 rebounds. Louisville shot 48 percent from the field (30-63) but would’ve shot better if they weren’t two for 22 from three-point range.
Notre Dame ended the first half hitting just one of its last seven shots, but was only down five going into the locker room. Louisville dominated the paint outrebounding Notre Dame 25-17 which helped them take a 29-24 lead into halftime.
The Cardinals came out strong going on a 9-2 run to begin the game. They kept the pace and led from start to finish in the first half. However, the Irish kept fighting to keep it close. Midway through the first half, Notre Dame was down 15-7 after almost four minutes of scoreless basketball. Hubb ended the drought with a beautiful take to the hoop with 10:10 left in the first half. This sparked a 7-2 run to get the Irish back into the game.
The offense operated the best in transition which led to easy buckets. After they started the game shooting 3 for 16 from the field, Notre Dame hit a burst offensively hitting five of seven field goals following Hubb’s layup. Notre Dame cut the Louisville lead to just three, 21-18 after a Mooney bucket in the paint.
Notre Dame shot 31 percent from the field in the first half (11-35). The Irish used active hands and forced the Cardinals into six turnovers, four steals in the first half. Mooney and Hubb led the way with 10 points each in the first half. Mooney is also just one rebound away from recording his 18th double-double on the year.
Louisville shot 45 percent from the field in the first half (14-31). The Cardinals converted 13-of-19 shot attempts inside the paint.
Nwora is leading the way with nine points and six rebounds. Enoch and Williams each also added six points each. Williams also pulled down eight boards.
