Defense Lifts Notre Dame Over Louisville, 77-70
Senior guard Steve Vasturia iced the game in the final minute, but Notre Dame’s 77-70 victory over No. 9 Louisville on Wednesday came down to defense.
Despite making just two field goals over the final nine minutes and six seconds, the 23rd-ranked Irish came away with a gutsy win over the Cardinals in front of 8,420 spectators at Purcell Pavilion.
“It’s safe to say we won the game in the last nine minutes with our defense,” junior guard Matt Farrell said.
Notre Dame held Louisville to 39.1-percent shooting from the field, including a 32.4-percent mark in the second half.
For the second straight game, Notre Dame’s defense produced a “kill” in the final four minutes, meaning three consecutive defensive trips without allowing a basket. The Irish also played stout defense down the stretch in last week’s overtime win at Pittsburgh.
“It’s hard to score on those dudes, and I thought we were mentally tough,” head coach Mike Brey said. “We weren’t really flowing offensively, but can we go back and guard?
“Our defense kind of won the game for us.”
Leading 71-68 and with the shot clock winding down, Vasturia drove to the basket and hit a fall-away floater to extend the lead to 73-68 with 19 seconds left. The shot effectively ended the Cardinals’ hopes of a comeback victory.
Vasturia scored a career-high 24 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field, while adding six rebounds. It was Vasturia’s second straight game with a clutch basket — he hit the go-ahead shot with 2.5 seconds left in overtime to defeat Pittsburgh.
“They kind of had some mismatches when they were playing two bigs,” Vasturia said. “I had a big guy on me, and I figured I could get to the lane and get something up. I was able to get by him.
“It felt good. I was pumped and we were able to get a couple more stops.”
Louisville entered the matchup with a plus-6.4 rebounding margin and figured to have a significant advantage on the glass. But a total team effort — led by junior forward Bonzie Colson’s 14 boards — gave the Irish a 38-35 advantage in rebounding.
“That’s something that Coach Brey has told us that we have to crash the glass and that gets us going, it gets us going in transition,” said Colson, who added 18 points to tally his ninth double-double of the season. “We got big rebounds when we needed it, we defended when we needed to defend and that’s big for us.”
The Irish (13-2) are now 2-0 in Atlantic Coast Conference play and host Clemson on Saturday (3 p.m., ESPNU). The hot start in league play has alleviated the blown leads in losses to Villanova and Purdue in non-conference play.
Brey called it a “toughness win” and one he’s not taking for granted.
“To get to 2-0 in this league feels like you’re 6-0 because of what’s going on around the league,” Brey said. “We’re blessed to be 2-0, but we darned sure earned it with toughness.”
A big part of Notre Dame’s success against the long and athletic Cardinals was the play of its guards Vasturia and Farrell, who finished with 22 points.
Notre Dame elected to drive the ball against Louisville instead of settling for outside shots. The plan worked — Notre Dame went 22 of 25 from the free throw line and put the Cardinals into foul trouble.
“We said drive the heck out of them,” Brey said. “Because we drove we got to the foul line, and the foul line was a great weapon for us. This was a team you have to drive.”
It helps that the Irish have what Brey believes are the “best guards in the country” in Farrell and Vasturia.
“They’re the toughest, no one will talk about them like that,” Brey said of the two New Jersey natives. “Those two guys are tough, they’re fearless, their basketball IQ is high. Right now, they’re setting an unbelievable tone for us in league play.”
Farrell, who burst onto the scene last March, faced perhaps his toughest test as a starter against the high-pressure Cardinals.
“I was looking forward to this,” Farrell said. “We needed this win bad after the two games we gave away. We’re past that. I wanted to play well.”
ODDS & ENDS
• Notre Dame is now 10-0 at Purcell Pavilion this season and has won the last six home matchups against Louisville.
• Vasturia on the team’s rebounding edge: “That happens through the flow of the game and a lot of times even at the end of the game it happens. We had a couple stops in a row … we had enough which is important.
“I think [junior forward Martinas Geben] and Bonzie did an unbelievable job on the glass. They are a pretty big team … getting those rebounds was huge.”
• Senior forward Austin Torres provided a spark off the bench, scoring a season-high six points and blocking two shots in four minutes of action.
• Farrell on attacking the paint en route to a 34-32 advantage in points in the paint: “We wanted to put them on their heels right away. We wanted to go downhill against them. They were a very good defensive team and we wanted to spread them out.
“We really attacked them off the dribble and that’s going to be good for us going forward because we’ve got guys that can get in the lane and make plays.”
• Sophomore guard Donovan Mitchell led Louisville with 20 points and five assists. Sophomore forward Ray Spalding had 10 rebounds.
• Colson on Vasturia’s big night: “It was huge for Steve. He hits big shots and we need that out of him. He played great defense as well today and Steve is just one of those guys who does his thing and he needs more respect.”
• Senior wing V.J. Beachem finished with just two points and three rebounds on 1-of-3 shooting.
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