Serving 21 years on the Notre Dame bench, Irish head basketball coach Mike Brey has pulled a lot of strings and made a lot of lineup moves during his career.
And while the switch Brey made before the Purdue game Saturday by inserting junior transfer guard Trey Wertz into the starting lineup for senior forward Juwan Durham didn’t lead to an Irish win, what Wertz provided in tough but gutsy 88-78 loss to the Boilermakers at the annual Crossroads Classic in Indianapolis should provide Brey some hope that Notre Dame has another legitimate playmaker moving forward.
Wertz scored a game-high 27 points to help Notre Dame climb back and stay in game it trailed by 15 points (47-32) with three minutes left in the first half.
A graduate transfer from Santa Clara University, Wertz career-high remains 33 points.
The effort from Wertz did nothing in the Irish win-loss column, but it did in drawing a coach’s appreciation.
“As we saw in practice, which nobody was able to see because of COVID with no open practices or scrimmages, [Wertz] is a very gifted, feel-for-the-game guard,” Brey told Jack Nolan of Fighting Irish Media after the game. “To see what he did today, I give him a lot of credit. The game comes easy to him.”
Circumstances surrounding Wertz’s seemingly overnight emergence from roster inactive, to starter, and then leading scorer make his story even more impressive.
After a unexpected announcement Wednesday evening from the NCAA making all transfer players previously expected to sit out this entire season immediately eligible, Wertz wasted no time making his mark a couple hours later that night against Duke, logging nine points and three rebounds in 20.5 minutes.
Wertz effort earned him the starting spot against Purdue. His performance Saturday should bring him many more to come.
Purdue looked to take control of this game early in the first half when eight-of-11 three-point shooting helped it to an 11-0 run and a 15-point lead.
Not willing to fold tent, Notre Dame responded with a three-point barrage of its own, battled back with a 21-6 run late in the first half and through the start of the second half, to tie the game 53-53 with 14 minutes remaining.
But as Purdue did each time Notre Dame made a push to get back into the game, it responded after the Irish tied things up with a 9-0 run and never looked back.
Notre Dame was beaten in nearly every statistical category in this one.
Purdue shot 14-of-28 three pointers (50 percent) while Notre Dame managed 16-of-41 (39 percent) from long range, respectable but not good enough.
The Boilers also won the rebounding battle 40-31 and points in the paint 26-14.
Led by Wertz, Notre Dame placed four players in double figures. Junior guard Cormac Ryan recorded 14 points with three rebounds and four assists; junior forward Nate Laszewski added 13 points and five rebounds; and senior guard Nikola Djogo finished with 11 points.
Junior point guard Prentiss Hubb — who entered the game as Notre Dame’s leading scorer with 19.4 points a game — was shutout on 0-7 shooting, but added six rebounds and four assists.
Djogo A Go-Go
Highlighted by two three-pointers on consecutive possessions early in the second half that tied the game at 53, Diogo provided the Irish with timely scoring in the absence of Hubb.
In limited substitutional minutes, the senior Irish captain went 3-of-5 three-point shooting for his 11 points, marking his season-best mark and only the second time in his career he has scored double figures.
“He deserves it,” Brey said of his fifth-year senior team captain, “making plays for us, making open shots for us.”
Up Next
Life won’t get any easier for the Irish, who return to action Tuesday (7 p.m.) for a game at Syracuse (5-1) inside the Carrier Dome.
After a split of two meetings last season between these two teams, the Orange have now beaten Notre Dame nine times in the last 13 games, though the Irish have won two straight at the Carrier Dome after losing five in a row there from 2009 to 2016.
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