Missing Mooney, Notre Dame Survives Presbyterian, 63-53
A couple of key late player scratches Monday night — one in particular — forced Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey to get creative with his lineup and rotation, then hold his breath during a fourth game in 10 days against a worthy opponent in Presbyterian College that won 20 last season.
With star senior forward John Mooney out with a stomach ailment and sophomore guard Robby Carmody unavailable with a slight head injury, Brey needed and received the necessary work from a couple of backups and some reliable veterans to survive a hard-fought 63-53 win over the Blue Hose.
Senior forward Juwan Durham was asked to pick up much of the production void on the interior with Mooney’s absence, and he responded with 11 points to go along with a career-high 15 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Nate Laszewski, who started in Mooney’s place, added a season-high 11 points with six rebounds.
Brey explained after the game that he was hopeful Mooney could play, right up until pre-game warm-ups.
“I got the news on Johnny this morning at 9 a.m., and I’m worried,” Brey said. “He tried it a little, he tried to eat some stuff, he tried it a little bit. He came in and said, ‘I got nothing.’ I said, ‘Go home, I’ll call you later, just get out of here.’”
Brey’s worries came with good reason.
After leading wire-to-wire in three consecutive wins over Robert Morris, Howard and Marshall, the Irish trailed the Blue Hose 28-25 with six minutes left in the first half.
But playing like a seasoned-veteran in a critical situation, senior guard and team captain Rex Pflueger sparked a 14-3 run to end the first half that gave the Irish the lead for good, though not necessarily a comfortable one, until they pulled away during the last five minutes of the game.
Pflueger finished with 13 points. He also added a team-high six assists and three rebounds with no turnovers, and a post-game vote of confidence that this year’s team is far better equipped to fight through tough situations like these than it was a year ago.
“Last year, those games would be a little more shaky,” Pflueger said. “But I think our guys internally have a lot more confidence in each other. We’re a year older … The freshmen are no longer freshmen, they’re growing up so in those end of the game situations I don’t think we fret as much as we did last year.”
Senior guard T.J. Gibbs rounded out the four Irish scorers in double figures with 10 points.
With the thinned rotation, senior reserve guard Nick Djogo was asked to play 15 minutes and he responded with seven points, including two three-pointers in the first half.
“You’re playing those seven guys,” Brey said, “and guys had to make some more plays and they did. Some guys get a little more confident out of it.”
Filling The Void
In the absence of Mooney — and the 16.5 points and the 12.5 rebounds averages that stayed home with him — the interior production was left to Laszewki and Durham, and they both delivered.
The two combined for 22 points, 21 rebounds, and some gritty work on the interior that led to a 14-3 run to close the first half and a 12-4 run to close the second half, arguably the two most important stretches of the game.
A 28-point favorite, Notre Dame never led by more than 12 points and actually held just a 51-49 advantage with eight minutes left in the game, until Durham and Laszewski helped the Irish pull away.
Those two combined for nine straight points during the late game-winning run.
“I knew I needed to get on the glass, you can’t replace somebody like John Mooney at all,” Durham said.
Richly Rewarded
Even while sitting out Monday’s game, Mooney’s work from last week was still being recognized in his absence when the all-American candidate collected both National Player of the Week and ACC Player of the Week honors from his previous two games.
Mooney followed his impressive 18-point, 16-rebound game last Tuesday in a 79-50 win over Howard with a career-high 28 points and 16 rebounds three nights later in a 74-64 victory over Marshall.
Before Monday games, Mooney was the only player in the current ACC statistical rankings in the top-10 of both scoring (9th at 16.5 ppg) and rebounding (1st at 12.5 ppg).
“I’m thrilled for him to be ACC Player of the Week, talk about timing,” Brey said. “He was trying to get (the honor) all of last year with all of those double-doubles and never did. He never got it. He gets it, and he’s sick. I am certainly thrilled for him to have a week like he did and he should be fine by Thursday.”
*Up Next
After finishing last regular season winning its final five games, Toledo was upset 80-76 by Northern Illinois in the first round of the Mid-American Tournament then bumped 78-64 in the first round of the NIT Tournament.
Notre Dame (4-1) and Toledo (3-1) shared no common opponents last season and it has been a long time since these two have played.
The Irish lead the series 4-1, the last meeting coming in 1979 at the old Market Square Arena in Indianapolis in a game No. 4 Notre Dame won 79-71. The other four games came between 1933 and 1966.
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