Matt Ryan’s Career Night Paces Irish In 91-60 Victory Over Chicago State
Notre Dame was in a battle with Chicago State early this evening and needed a spark.
The Irish found it in sophomore forward Matt Ryan.
After taking its first lead at 11-10 with 14:32 remaining in the half, Ryan exploded and knocked down four three-pointers in four minutes to push the Irish lead to 27-12. Notre Dame (6-0) never looked back winning 91-60 over Chicago State (2-3).
Ryan scored a career-high 23 points after starting 5 of 5 from deep before cooling off in the second half to finish 7 of 14 on three-pointers.
“Matt Ryan’s performance was awesome. Fabulous,” Mike Brey said. “It’s an amazing weapon. He’s been getting healthier and getting his legs back. He needed a game like that tonight.”
Senior guard Steve Vasturia notched a season-high 19 points and senior wing VJ Beachem contributed 15 to the total to help complement Ryan’s career night.
Junior forward Bonzie Colson recorded his third straight double-double by scoring 10 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Junior point guard Matt Farrell scored six points and dished out seven assists to lead Notre Dame in that department. Freshman point guard T.J. Gibbs had one of his better games in an Irish uniform with eight points, four rebounds and five assists. Sophomore guard Rex Pflueger did not play in the contest.
Notre Dame shot 34 of 66 (51.5 percent) from the field and 17 of 37 (45.9 percent) from three-point range. The 17 three-pointers was a season high for the Irish. The team finished with 26 assists on the 34 made baskets. The defense recorded six steals, five blocks and forced 11 turnovers while holding the Cougars to less than 40 percent from the field and from deep.
“I think we know we have a lot of different weapons,” Brey said. “We don’t have to ride just one. It wasn’t a great offensive night for Bonzie with the defense they were playing. He’s not getting shots and he has five assists and gets 11 rebounds. I think he is okay with that.
“We don’t have anyone who is insecure about not getting their stuff.”
Hello Matt Ryan
Ryan seemingly could not miss in the first half against Chicago State. The performance led to a career high in points which he eclipsed in the first half.
While he cooled in the second half going 1 of 6, Ryan finished a very respectable 50.0 percent on 14 attempts. Of course, this type of production cannot be counted on a nightly basis, but shooting well from deep is something the Irish will count on as the year goes on to help carry the bench production.
“I would hope he would feel really good about it,” Brey said. “One of things I’ve been after him about is really the last two weeks, but even more the last week, was in shooting drills moving more game speed. He glides a bit … he’s got to move quick kind of like he was tonight. I think the carryover is better. We have to know when to ride him and not ride him.
“His teammates knew he was on another level and they really found him. I thought that was really intelligent of them.”
Big Men Offensive Production
Notre Dame is doing quite well early in the season in terms of scoring points without getting much from his three regular big men of junior Martinas Geben, sophomore Elijah Burns and senior Austin Torres. The trio combined for only seven points and 10 rebounds. Freshman John Mooney scored three points and grabbed four rebounds in nine minutes.
Up Next
Notre Dame will welcome Iowa to South Bend Tuesday (Nov. 29) as part of the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
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