ND Dominates Fairleigh Dickinson, 91-66, Wins Sixth Straight
When a team plays as well from start to finish on both sides of the court as Notre Dame did Tuesday night in a 91-66 throttling of outmanned Fairleigh Dickinson, it provides hope that this season could bring the turnaround Irish fans are hoping for.
The Irish starters were terrific and the back-ups were equally impressive as Notre Dame (6-1) started fast and sustained throughout to complete perfect 6-0 homestead.
In the most balanced attack of the season, Notre Dame put six players in double figures and got 38 points off its bench, and also held FDU (1-5) to just 38-percent shooting, out-rebounded the Knights 44-33 and added seven blocks and five steals.
“We haven’t had this type of team since I’ve been here during my five years,” said Irish captain Rex Pflueger. “And I can say it wholeheartedly — this is the best defensive group I have had in my time here and I think that is just a snippet of what we can be.”
Coming off of his heroic buzzer-beater last week against Toledo that sent the game to overtime and sparked a 64-62 Irish win, sophomore forward Nate Laszewski paced the Irish with 16 points against FDU and added three rebounds in just 17 minutes off the bench.
“I thought we brought a lot of juice,” Laszewski said.
Senior guard T.J. Gibbs added 11 points and sophomore guard Dane Goodwin came off the bench with 15 points. Senior forwards John Mooney (13 points, 13 rebounds) and Juwan Durham (12 points, 11 rebounds) each recorded double-doubles.
Offensively, the Irish made eight of their first 14 shots on the way to a 13-0 lead.
Defensively, Notre Dame was equally impressive. FDU missed its first 18 field goal attempts before finally recording its first made basket almost exactly 10 minutes into the first half.
Fairleigh Dickinson coach Greg Heranda said afterward that the bad karma he created by visiting the Grotto on campus earlier during the day, then lighting three candles with no donation cash on hand, might’ve contributed to his team’s 0-for-18 shooting start and early deficit.
“It’s hard to come back from that,” said Heranda, who explained that he later slipped Irish head coach Mike Brey the three bucks, perhaps too late.
To the Knights credit — a team fighting a four-game losing streak and playing its fifth consecutive road game — falling behind 37-18 could’ve brought a surrender flag before halftime.
“We do love to defend, and they talk about it, and we did start the game really digging in,” Brey said, “and then I thought we let up a little bit.”
FDU pulled a 12-2 run of its own and briefly got within double-digits at 39-30 before Pflueger sparked an 8-0 run that ballooned from there and allowed Notre Dame to cruise to its most complete win of the season.
Pflueger finished with 10 points, seven rebounds, five assists and a leadership presence that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.
“I was kind of in my game doing a little bit of everything,” Pflueger said. “And my knee is getting progressively healthier as the games go on and I’m learning how to use my body again.”
Hitting Their Mark
For a team — and frankly a program — that is traditionally built on terrific three-point shooting, through its first six games this season and heading into Tuesday’s matchup with FDU, Notre Dame ranked just 13th out of the 15 ACC teams in three-point shooting at 29 percent. That was only 288th nationally.
Both rankings will be dramatically bolstered after the Irish finally enjoyed a good long-range shooting night against FDU.
Led by a combined 8-of-12 three-point shooting effort from Pflueger (2/3), Goodwin (3/3) and Gibbs (3/6), Notre Dame shot 12-of-25 as a team from long range.
“All right, we threw a couple of shots in tonight.” Brey said. “It’s good to see us make some good ones, throw it in there and share the ball.”
Solid Bench Work
Led by Laszewski’s 16 and Goodwin’s 15, the Irish bench outscore FDU’s 38-19. Those two sophomores combined for 11-of-20 shooting in the type of performance and production Brey will looking for all season.
“Goodwin and Leszewski coming off the bench and being aggressive for us is going to be important moving forward,” Brey said. “So hopefully they are more confident to do it regularly. We want them to be aggressive.”
Welcome To The Club
With his five assists Tuesday night, Gibbs eclipsed the 300-assist mark for his career, becoming the 13th Irish player to reach that milestone under Brey and the 21st all-time at Notre Dame.
As a team, the Irish recorded 24 assists against only seven turnovers against FDU.
Up Next:
Notre Dame gets a week off for Thanksgiving break before playing at No. 5 Maryland next Wednesday (Dec. 4) as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
The Irish are 11-9 all-time against the Terps, but have lost the last two meetings, most recently, a 74-66 game at Maryland in 2014 when they were both ACC members.
These two teams played 10 total games against four common opponents last season.
*Maryland lost to Virginia (76-71), lost to Illinois (78-67), beat Radford (78-64) and split two games with Purdue (62-60 loss and a 70-56 win).
*Notre Dame beat Purdue (88-80), beat Illinois (76-74), lost to Radford (63-60) and lost twice to Virginia (82-55 and 60-54).
Maryland plays at Temple on Thanksgiving before awaiting the Irish visit.
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