Irish Falter Down The Stretch In 80-77 Overtime Loss To Indiana
Notre Dame (8-3) lead by eight points with under two minutes to go, but was unable to fend off a pesky Indiana (6-5) team that ultimately took down the Irish 80-77 in overtime of the Crossroads Classic.
Here is a period-by-period recap of the matchup. Full box score can be FOUND HERE.
FIRST HALF
It took a few possessions for both teams to get rolling with the Hoosiers capturing the first points on a layup by Aljami Durham at the 18:09 mark. Junior Irish guard Rex Pflueger answered with a reverse layup to tie the game at 2-2 with 17:51 left.
Senior forward Bonzie Colson forced a steal which led to an easy layup to give the Irish their first lead at 17:04. Pflueger knocked down a 3, but it was sandwiched between two baskets by Indiana’s Juwan Morgan. Notre Dame held a 7-6 advantage at the first media timeout (15:16).
Morgan continued to have his way connecting on a dunk and another basket inside the paint to have eight of Indiana’s early 10 points at the 13:17 mark (10-9 Indiana lead). Notre Dame freshman wing DJ Harvey hit a mid-range jumper on his first offensive possession of the game.
In the first 8:26, Indiana scored 10 of its first 11 points in the paint while holding the Irish to a 4-of-11 (36.4) mark from the floor. The Hoosiers took a 11-9 advantage into the under-12 media timeout (11:34).
After a slow start, Colson found a rhythm and went on a personal 6-0 run to give the Irish a 15-11 lead with just under nine minutes remaining. Indiana’s Robert Johnson answered with his own three before the Irish reeled off a 7-0 run behind four more points by Colson and a three-pointer by sophomore guard Nik Djogo. Notre Dame took a 22-14 edge into the under-8 timeout (6:06).
Notre Dame kept firing from deep as sophomore guard TJ Gibbs and sophomore forward John Mooney connected on threes to push the Irish run up to 13-0 and a 28-14 lead overall (5:15). Both teams cooled offensively over the next two minutes going 1-of-4 combined with Indiana getting a three-pointer by Collin Hartman. The Irish lead 28-17 with 3:22 remaining in the half.
Indiana slowly cut away at the Irish lead over about the next four minutes trimming it down to 31-25 with under a minute to go in the half thanks to two three-pointers by Hartman and an and-one by Devonte Green. The Irish led 31-25 with 40.1 second remaining.
That’s how it would remaining going into the break with the Irish holding the 31-25 edge.
Colson led all scorers with 12 points while adding five rebounds. Gibbs had five while Farrell, Mooney, Harvey and Djogo each had three points. Pflueger added two to the team’s total.
Overall, the Irish shot 11-of-28 (39.3 percent) from the field including 4-of-12 behind the arc. Morgan had eight points to lead the Hoosiers while Hartman’s two threes gave him six in the first 20 minutes. Idiana shot 10-of-27 (37 percent) overall including 3-of-12 (25 percent) on its three-point attempts.
Both teams had 14 points in the paint while the Hoosiers held a 21-15 edge on the boards including 5-3 on offensive boards. Indiana had seven turnovers in the half while the Irish had just two.
SECOND HALF
Indiana came out strong in the second half going a quick 5-0 run behind a three-pointer by Johnson and free throws by Durham to cut the Irish lead to 31-30 with 18:53 remaining.
Notre Dame then found its rhythm going on a 13-4 run to take a 44-34 lead at the under-16 media timeout (15:57). During that run, the Irish got five points from Colson, threes by Farrell and Gibbs and a dunk by Geben after a nice assist via Farrell.
The Hoosiers closed the Irish lead down to four (44-40) with six straight points before Mooney hit a three and Farrell followed with a layup in transition to give Notre Dame a 49-40 with 13:31 left.
Indiana again answered with a 5-0 run to give the Irish a 49-45 advantage at the under-12 timeout (11:53).
The teams went back-and-forth with Idiana closing the lead to 51-49 with 10:16 left after layup by Morgan. Farrell followed with an and-one opportunity after getting fouled on a floater. The Irish took a 54-49 lead at the under-8 media timeout (7:59).
Through the first 12 minutes of the second half, Indiana shot 7-of-12 (58.2 percent) while the Irish connected on 9-of-17 (52.9 percent).
Notre Dame was able to extend its lead to 61-53 with 4:24 left via five points from Gibbs and two by Colson. Gibbs connected on a layup to give Notre Dame a 65-57 lead with two minutes left. Morgan went on a 7-0 run including a game-tying layup (65-65) with 13 seconds left to give Notre Dame a chance to win the game.
The Irish found Austin Torres in the paint and the senior big man was fouled trying to get the final shot off. Torres missed both free throws with under a second to go to head to overtime.
OVERTIME
Notre Dame again had chances to put the Hoosiers away in overtime taking a 71-67 lead with 2:29 left after a 6-0 run to follow Indiana’s bucket to open the scoring.
Indiana again would not go away with a chance to tie the game with under 20 seconds to go with the Irish leading 77-74.
Morgan got the ball in the paint and converted on a layup and was fouled to put the Hoosiers down one with a chance to tie with about 11 seconds. Morgan missed the free throw, but Green got the offensive board and found Morgan under the basket for the dunk to give the Hoosiers a 78-77 lead with eight seconds remaining.
Farrell missed a three-pointer on the other end which led to two more free throws by the Hoosier to extend their lead to 80-77 with 2.3 seconds remaining. The Irish had one more chance to tie it up at 80, but Colson’s half-court heave went in-and-out giving Indiana a dramatic win over the Irish.
Morgan finished with 34 points including what wound up being the game-winner. Johnson scored 20 to complement Morgan’s dominating performance.
Colson scored 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season and 29th of his career. Gibbs finished with 17 points while Farrell added 15 points and eight assists.
Indiana out-rebounded the Irish 41-32 and had 14 second-chance points off 10 offensive rebounds. The Hoosiers shot 49 percent (27-of-55) for the game while Notre Dame finished 25-of-61 (41 percent).
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