Notre Dame Claims Second Straight ACC Victory
Winning a modest two games in a row and moving to 4-6 in ACC play doesn’t necessarily seem like reason for a jubilant celebration.
But given the way this season has gone for Notre Dame, perhaps a parade was in order after the Irish claimed an 80-72 win Saturday at home against Georgia Tech.
This marked the fifth straight game Notre Dame has scored at least 75 points, it won three of those.
“We’re confident offensively right now,” Irish head coach Mike Brey said. “If we can score 75 and 80, you’re going to have a chance to win every game.”
Notre Dame (13-8 overall) played small ball against the Georgia Tech’s tall trees, which made for an entertaining and interesting chess match.
The Yellow Jackets (10-12, 4-7 ACC) parlayed 20 offensive rebounds into 25 second-chance points and it won the points in the paint battle 44-18.
Notre Dame used its speed and good shooting to counter with nine three-pointers and 23-of-28 foul shooting.
“Tonight was the ultimate test, they kept playing big and we kept playing small,” Brey said. “Something was going to give at some point. We were just better offensively and harder to guard.”
Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner agreed with Brey. The Yellow Jackets lost the foul-line scoring battle by 15 points and the three-point comparison by 15 points as well.
“I think they are a really great offensive team, maybe the best offensive team in the league,” Pastner said of the Irish.
Notre Dame senior forward John Mooney tied his career high with 28 points to lead four Irish scorers in double-digits.
Senior guard T.J. Gibbs added 19 points, sophomore guard Dane Goodwin had 14 and senior guard Rex Pflueger had 13, tying his season scoring high.
In a game that featured 13 ties and nine lead changes, Notre Dame took control of this back-and-forth matchup midway through the second half with a 19-9 run that pushed the Irish lead to 67-57, an advantage that was never seriously threatened.
This marks the first time since February of 2018 that the Irish have won back-to-back ACC games.
Another Mooney Moment
With his career-high 28 points and 10 rebounds against the difficult Georgia Tech interior, Mooney may have played his best game of the season.
Mooney delivered with 18 of his points in the second half — most during the game-deciding run — and also had seven of his rebounds after halftime for his 17th double-double.
“He’s a beast, that’s what I love about Mooney,” Pflueger said of his teammate. “Once he turns it on, you can just see the switch flip. He becomes more aggressive and more confident in his game and that’s when we know as a team that when we need to find him.”
Mooney has recently added another weapon to his game.
After entering the Wake forest game earlier this week converting fewer than 60 percent of his foul shots, Mooney has suddenly found the magic touch from the stripe, going 7-of-7 against Wake Forest and 8-of-9 versus Georgia Tech.
Going back two-plus games, Mooney had made 17 straight free throws before the streak came to an end late in the Georgia Tech game.
Whatever it takes to help the team.
“We’re a confident group right now, especially in close games,” Mooney said. “We’re confident to close them out now.”
On another Mooney note, with a three-point basket midway through the second half, the Irish star joined the Notre Dame 1,000-point scoring club.
A Rightful Honor
Notre Dame legend Kelly Tripucka was all smiles Saturday morning as he spoke to the media about two hours before his banner was unfurled and the former Irish great became the ninth member of Notre Dame’s Ring of Honor.
Well, Tripucka was all smiles until the subject of Danny Ainge came up.
For those who may not remember, Tripucka was a three-time Irish All-American and a freshman on Notre Dame’s only Final Four team in 1977-78.
Danny Ainge was the BYU guard who prematurely ended Tripucka’s career in March of 1981 with a coast-to-coast layup in the second round of the NCAA Tournament that gave BYU a 51-50 upset win and the Irish one of the most disappointing losses in program history.
“My kids, they call (Ainge) my mortal enemy, and that’s been for like 30 years,” said Tripucka, the memory of the Ainge play seemingly as fresh today as it was more than three decades ago. “That game is always brought up and it ruins my day.”
After his stellar career at Notre Dame, Tripucka enjoyed a solid 10-year stint in the NBA.
“I was fortunate to get recruited (to Notre Dame), I’m certainly glad I chose here,” recalled Tripucka, a Glen Ridge, N.J., native who recently turned 60. “Days go slow and the years go fast. It’s hard to believe that next year it will be 40 years since I graduated and I’m still trying to figure out what happened to the last 20.”
Up Next: Longtime rivals reunite on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., EST) when Pittsburgh pays a visit to Purcell Pavilion for the 66th meeting between these two schools.
Notre Dame narrowly leads this series, 34-31, which dates all the back to 1927. Through the 1920s and 1930s, these two routinely played twice a year in a home-and-home arrangement.
The rivalry was renewed in 1996 when both teams were members of the Big East Conference, and then again in 2014 when these two reunited as ACC foes.
The Irish have won three of the last four meetings but dropped the only game between the two last season, a 56-53 Panther win in Pittsburgh.
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