Defense Propels Notre Dame To 67-56 Win Over Duquesne
Notre Dame (4-1) trailed with under seven minutes to go, but the Irish used a 13-0 run to close out Duquesne (3-1), 67-56, Tuesday night in South Bend.
The Irish hit 11 of their first 22 attempts before connecting on 11 more over their next 37 shots to allow the Dukes to hang around. Fortunately for Mike Brey's group, their defensive effort helped make up for their shooting woes over the final 29 minutes or so of the contest allowing Duquesne to hit just 35 percent of the team's attempts.
Check out Blue & Gold Illustrated's half-by-half recap of the Irish win.
FIRST HALF
For the second-straight game, Notre Dame started a five-man group of guard Prentiss Hubb, guard TJ Gibbs, guard Rex Pflueger, wing DJ Harvey and forward John Mooney.
To get the scoring going for the Irish, Mooney knocked down a hook shot which was sandwiched by buckets from forwards Marcus Weathers and Michael Hughes of Duquesne.
Notre Dame finally started the first few minutes of the opening half strong from the offensive end connecting on five of their first eight shots. The four shots following Mooney’s bucket came via the three-point line with Hubb getting the train rolling before the Irish eventually hit three-straight getting another from Hubb and one each from Gibbs and Harvey.
The Irish had an early 14-7 lead in the first six minutes of the contest. Freshmen guards Robby Carmody and Dane Goodwin along with freshman forward Nate Laszewski were the first members of the bench. Goodwin wasted no time getting in the scoring column with a runner in the lane, which forced a goal-tend, while getting fouled to push the Notre Dame lead to 17-7.
A few moments later Mike Brey went with a lineup that could be a preview of the future of Irish men’s basketball with Hubb, Carmody, Goodwin, Laszewski and junior forward Juwan Durham taking the court at the same time.
Duquesne would close the Irish lead to 19-15 getting three points from guard Eric Williams and three via guard Tavian Dunn-Martin. A 6-0 run fueled by buckets from Laszewski, Hubb and Durham in the paint quickly erased the Dukes momentum and put Notre Dame up 25-15 with 10 minutes remaining.
Hubb was the first player in the contest to crack 10 points with a nice layup in the lane to push the Irish lead to 27-15 with 9:14 left. The score remained the same to the under-8 media timeout (7:43) with the Irish forcing the Dukes to miss six-straight shots.
Notre Dame started to slow down a bit offensively hitting just two of their next six shots, but both were from behind the arc (Pflueger and Goodwin) to keep Duquesne from chipping too much into the Irish lead, which sat at 33-24 with 3:26 left in the half.
The Irish would not score over the final five minutes of the half to take a 33-27 lead into the break. Notre Dame hit just two of their final 11 attempts overall.
Hubb led all scorers with 10 points while Goodwin added six of his own. Overall, the Irish shot 39.4 percent (13-of-33) from the floor and 42.9 percent (6-of-14) behind the arc. Duquesne connected on 11-of-30 (36.7 percent) field goal attempts and just 2-of-14 on three-point attempts (14.3 percent).
SECOND HALF
The offensive struggles that plagued both teams to end the first half carried over to the start of the final half.
Notre Dame hit just 2-of-6 in the first four-plus minutes while Duquesne missed seven-straight attempts. The Irish led 38-28 with 15:56 left.
Duquesne came roaring back shortly after however going on a 10-0 run to tie the game back up at 38 apiece, which was led by back-to-back three-pointers from guard Frankie Hughes and Dunn-Martin.
A free throw from Gibbs and dunk by Mooney, off an assist from Harvey, to make it 41-38 Irish with 12:14 left.
Dunn-Martin connected on a pair of three-pointers to give Duquesne the lead back at 44-42. The contest continued to go back-and-forth with a pair of Mooney free throws eventually giving Notre Dame a 51-50 lead. Hubb hit a clutch three-pointer during that stretch to tie the game at 46 apiece.
Duquesne would regain the lead at 52-51 before the Irish clamped down to pull away.
Notre Dame would go on a 13-0 run to close out the Dukes fueled by five points from Mooney, including a tough and-one finish off an assist from Goodwin who had grabbed an offensive rebound, and four points from Pflueger. The Irish forced Duquesne to miss six-straight shots to help aid the close out.
For the half, Notre Dame shot 34.6 percent (9-of-26) overall and 1-of-10 (10 percent) behind the arc. The Irish made 15-of-20 at the charity stripe (75 percent) to keep the Dukes at bay.
The Notre Dame defense came up clutch late in the second forcing six-straight misses and holding Duquesne to 35 percent shooting (21-of-60) from the field.
Mooney recorded his third-straight double-double to lead the Irish with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Hubb finished with a career-high 14 points while Gibbs added 11 points to round out the top scorers.
Notre Dame shot 37.3 percent (22-of-59) from the field and 29.2 percent (7-of-24) on three-point attempts.
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