Notre Dame Downs Iowa 92-78 In ACC-Big Ten Challenge

Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said his team did some growing up at the Legends Classic tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y., last week while getting wins against Colorado and Northwestern.

That growth continued Tuesday when Notre Dame overcame a second-half deficit to beat Iowa 92-78 in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge in front of 7,660 people at Purcell Pavilion.

“God I’m excited about our team; I love my team,” Brey said. “There’s a great toughness about them. They had game pressure on them. Had to do tough stuff to win against a very tough offensive team.”

Notre Dame improved to 7-0 for the third time in Brey’s 17 seasons.

Notre Dame got off to a quick start and led by 15 points with 3:23 left in the first half. It then went cold entering the intermission. Iowa went on a 13-0 run to close out the half and took a 46-45 lead with 17:58 to go in the second half.

Trailing 52-50 in the second half, Notre Dame then went on a 10-0 run to seize control again.

Junior forward Bonzie Colson had 24 points and a career-high 17 rebounds to lead the Irish, while senior guard Steve Vasturia added 22 points and nine rebounds.

Senior wing V.J. Beachem got off to a slow start — he had just five points along with two turnovers in the first half — but came alive late and finished with 16 points.

Junior point guard Matt Farrell had another strong night, finishing with 16 points and seven assists.

Notre Dame, the country’s premiere free throw shooting team, finished 30 of 33 (90.9 percent) at the line.

“The foul line is an unbelievable weapon for us,” Brey said. “I just think we’re the best in the country from there. We get there and then we capitalize when we get there.”

The Irish out-rebounded the Hawkeyes 45-32 and held Iowa to 38.0 percent shooting (27 of 71).

ANOTHER BIG GAME FOR COLSON

Colson is now averaging 17.2 points and 9.7 rebounds per game for the Irish during their 7-0 start.

“He is the ultimate warrior,” Brey said of Colson. “He is a great competitor. There’s an edge about him. He gives you confidence, he gives his teammates confidence.”

Colson was a tough matchup for the Hawkeyes, scoring inside and outside against a defense that entered the game allowing 81.7 points per contest.

The 6-5, 225-pounder had 10 points and nine rebounds in the first half and continued that torrid pace the entire way en route to his fourth straight double-double. It was also the eighth double-double of his career.

“I was just ready to play,” Colson said. “I knew it was a big game.”

Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery — a former Notre Dame assistant — complimented the work of Colson and the way he stresses a defense.

“He’s versatile. He’s long, he can score with his back to the basket,” McCaffery said. “He can score over you. He can shoot it outside. He’s relentless on the glass. I’m really impressed with him, I really like his game.

“It gives them a weapon that sort of stabilizes their low post action and it creates space that their perimeter guys need out there that they can go to work.”

Alongside junior forward Martinas Geben, Colson is a crucial two-way player for the Irish.

“He brings it all,” Vasturia said of Colson. “You’ve seen this season, I don’t know if anybody can guard him in the post. He’s going to grab 10 rebounds a game and he’s going to bring a passion and a fight.”

STOPPING JOK

Iowa senior guard Peter Jok entered the evening averaging 25.3 points per game in the Hawkeyes’ first six games. The Irish contained Jok, only allowing the senior to score 15 points on 4-of-20 shooting, including a 2-of-11 effort on three-pointers.

Vasturia and sophomore wing Rex Pflueger were tasked with stopping the Hawkeyes’ leading scorer and their effort didn’t go unnoticed.

“They were really locked into him,” McCaffery said. “Mike was rotating guys and they were switching out on him. They really worked hard defending him. He’s going to see that pretty much the rest of the year.”

Brey noted Pflueger’s ability to defend on the court opened up the opportunity for Vasturia to get in a rhythm and flow on offense to take control the game.

“They were fabulous,” Brey said of Vasturia and Pflueger. “[Rex] was really chasing down Jok most of the night. And that is such a luxury to have that guy come in know who he is, guard like a son of a gun, it frees up Steve to go do the offensive stuff that he did and kind of take over the game when we needed to.

“I thought they were really good with their routes. They made him a two-point shooter for the most part, made him put it on the floor … it was team awareness. When you have Rex Pflueger dogging you it is exhausting.”

GEBEN PROVIDES TOUGHNESS

Geben began the game by picking up two fouls less than three minutes into the game and went to the bench for the remainder of the first half.

But the Lithuanian big man sparked the Irish in the second half, grabbing several big rebounds as the Irish stabilized themselves after Iowa took the lead.

“It was huge,” Colson said of Geben. “He came in and rebounded, defending, strong chest and shooting the shot when he had it. That was big for him. He played tremendous today and we’re going to need that out of him.”

Brey called the play of Geben, a 6-10, 255-pound physical presence, “fabulous” against the Hawkeyes.

“Big night for him,” Brey said of Geben. “You could say Brooklyn was the Matty Farrell coming out — tonight it was for Martin. To come in there, he doesn’t get distracted because of fouls. … He was physically defending that big guy, rebounding for us.”

Geben fouled out with 4:09 remaining in the game. He finished with two points and nine rebounds in 11 minutes of action.

He’s started all seven games for the Irish and is averaging 3.5 points and 5.3 rebounds in 15.3 points per game.

“I take a lot of pride in defense and the things that don’t always go on the stat sheet,” Geben said. “Battling for loose balls or showing hard on screens and defending the post. Not all defensive stats get registered, but I take pride in defense and I want to continue providing energy there.”

Next up: Notre Dame hosts North Carolina A&T on Sunday at 5 p.m.

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