Following some difficult moments in recent weeks and two straight losses, Notre Dame needed to beat somebody.
Bellarmine, a program in its first Division I season, provided a nice path. Notre Dame stumbled down it at first before gaining its balance and keeping a safe distance the rest of the way to notch an 81-70 victory. The Irish are 3-4 overall and 0-1 in the ACC, and have a week off before they host No. 16 Virginia on Dec. 30.
Here are some numbers from the game.
27: Points for guard Dane Goodwin, which tied a career high. He did much of his damage inside the arc, going 8 of 9 on two-pointers and 11 of 11 from the foul line. The 11 free throw attempts match his total from the first six games of the year.
20: Each team’s number of three-point attempts. Bellarmine made 11. Notre Dame made eight. The Irish primarily played zone defense and allowed 1.11 points per possession.
61: Possessions for Notre Dame, a Virginia-like slow pace. Bellarmine had 63.
0: Bellarmine offensive rebounds. The Knights missed 27 shots and corralled none of them. The lack of second chances was less costly, considering they shot 50 percent. Meanwhile, Notre Dame grabbed six of its 17 misses. As a raw number, six offensive rebounds is low. As a percentage of available offensive rebounds (35.3), it’s great and what you’d expect against a low-major opponent.
1.32: Points per possession for Notre Dame. That’s despite 14 turnovers (a 22.9 percent rate) in a short game, the main reason behind the Irish’s 43 shot attempts to Bellarmine’s 54. A 60.5 field goal percentage will overcome that, though. Notre Dame was 18 of 23 on twos and 21 of 25 at the foul line.
7: Players Notre Dame used. It started four guards around junior forward Nate Laszewski, the same lineup it used Saturday against Purdue. Fifth-year senior forward Juwan Durham and fifth-year senior wing Nik Djogo were the two off the bench, though Durham began the second half on the floor in place of junior guard Cormac Ryan. Durham left the game with an ankle injury late in the second half.
“I don’t think Juwan’s ankle is bad,” Brey said afterward. “I think he’ll be fine a week from tonight.”
2: Trey Wertz points after scoring 27 against Purdue. The Santa Clara transfer guard took three field goals and scored both his points from the foul line. He had four assists and three turnovers.
18: Prentiss Hubb points after scoreless game against Purdue. All but one of his 11 field goal attempts were three-pointers, and he made four of those to go with four assists and no turnovers.
8:14: Time Notre Dame spent trailing, all in the first half. It led for 27:51.
4: Combined number of blocks (three) and steals (one) for Notre Dame’s defense. It’s not a havoc-creating unit, meaning it needs to force contested shots and rebound to keep opponents from scoring. It has done neither with enough frequency this year. “He texted me Monday morning even before we even knew our game was canceled. … We needed to play this week.”
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