Notre Dame (12-11, 2-8) started out hot Wednesday night against Miami (10-12, 2-8), but the Irish fell flat scoring just 34 points over the final 36:20 in a 62-47 loss to the Hurricanes.
Mike Brey's group was held to a season-low in points and shot just 32.1 percent in the contest.
Blue & Gold Illustrated recaps the game half-by-half.
FIRST HALF
A key storyline entering a road matchup against Miami was whether Notre Dame was going to be able to carry over their hot shooting from Boston College. The Irish did just that to open.
Guard Prentiss Hubb and wing DJ Harvey hit three-pointers to start the scoring giving the Irish an early 6-0 lead over the Hurricanes.
A jumper from Miami forward Ebuka Izundu followed, but Irish forward John Mooney got a bucket inside off a nice pass from Hubb before hitting an open three-pointer when trailing.
Izundu got a dunk shortly after, but Harvey got an easy bucket in the lane to put Notre Dame up 13-4 with under 15 minutes to play in the half. The Irish hit five of their first seven shots during the stretch.
The Irish go a little sloppy over the next few minutes with a four-minute plus scoring drought and multiple turnovers to allow the Hurricanes to close the gap a bit at 13-8 with 11:58 left. Guard Chris Lykes had all four points for the Hurricanes with two converted jumpers.
Miami eventually tied the game at 13 apiece following a three-point play from Lykes, but the Irish regained the advantage less than a minute later with a dunk via Mooney off a nice pass from Hubb.
The Hurricanes would grab their first lead of the game though as guard DJ Vasiljevic got open in the corner and drilled a triple. Miami led 16-15 with 7:34 left in the opening half at the under-8 media timeout. After a 5-of-7 start from the field, Notre Dame hit just one shot in their next level attempts to allow Miami to take the lead.
Notre Dame would regain the lead with a jumper from Mooney before the Hurricanes jumped right back in front with a bucket of their own to make it 18-17 with 6:58 left.
After a strong performance against Boston College, it took Nik Djogo a little bit longer to get into the action at Miami with his first points coming on a tough drive through contact with 6:16 left.
Both teams couldn’t get a basket over the next couple of minutes with Notre Dame up 21-20 at the under-4 media timeout.
The Irish continued to struggle from the floor, which allowed Miami to get four-straight points to make it 24-21 Hurricanes with two minutes to play. A pair of free throws from Harvey with a minute left ended a four-minutes plus scoring drought for the Irish.
Over the 30-plus seconds, Miami got two buckets from Izundu, including a dunk right at the buzzer to give the Hurricanes a 28-23 advantage going into the break.
Mooney led all scorers with 11 points in the opening half to go with three rebounds, but the Irish shot just 32 percent (8-of-25) from the floor and 21.4 percent behind the arc (3-of-14). Notre Dame scored 13 points in the opening four minutes of the game, but got just 10 the rest of the way.
Miami countered with a 12-of-29 (41.4 percent) effort on field goals despite making just 1-of-9 on three-point attempts (11.1 percent).
SECOND HALF
Like Notre Dame did to start the game, Miami came out firing during the first two minutes of the final half.
The Hurricanes hit three of their first four attempts while holding the Irish scoreless to build a 34-23 lead with 17:59 left forcing a Notre Dame timeout. Vasiljevic got it going with a jumper from the free throw line off an offensive rebound and a bucket from Lykes capped off the quick start.
An old-fashion three-point play from forward Nate Laszewski stopped the bleeding a little bit, which he followed with another bucket to cut the Miami lead to 34-28.
But, the Hurricanes went on a quick 6-0 run behind buckets from Zach Johnson, Vasiljevic and Izundu to take their biggest lead at 40-28 going into the under-16 media timeout. At the time, Miami was 6-of-11 from the floor in the half while the Irish were just 2-of-8.
A three-pointer from Anthony Lawrence followed to make it 43-28 Hurricanes with 13:27 remaining. Mooney would find a cutting Djogo down the lane for a dunk to finally end the Miami 9-0 run.
Both teams would trade three-pointers going into the under-12 media timeout with the Hurricanes still up 13 points at 46-33. Before the three-point for the Irish by Harvey, Notre Dame had missed 15-straight attempts from deep.
Life didn’t get any easier for Notre Dame over the next few minutes as the Irish continued to miss shot after shot, while the Hurricanes extended their lead. Turnovers by Notre Dame led to three points from Johnson via a layup and a free throw moments later and a layup from Lykes.
Miami led 51-33 at the under-8 media timeout with the Irish missing 12 of their last 14 attempts going into the break.
Durham would provide some life for the Irish in the post with eight-straight points for the team, but Miami was able to answer with six points of their own with four going to Lawrence to keep Notre Dame from really cutting into the lead. Miami led 57-41 with under three minutes to play.
Both teams coasted to the finish with the Hurricanes claiming a 62-47 win over the Irish.
Harvey finished with 14 points to lead Notre Dame while Mooney added 11 points and six rebounds. For the game, Notre Dame shot 32.1 percent (18-of-56) and 14.3 percent behind the arc (4-of-28).
The 47 points are the lowest of the season for the Irish.
Miami shot 43.5 percent overall with Vasiljevic (15), Izundu (14), Lawrence (11) and Izundu (11) all scoring in double-digits.
----
• Talk about it inside Rockne’s Roundtable
• Subscribe to our podcast on iTunes
• Learn more about our print and digital publication, Blue & Gold Illustrated.
• Follow us on Twitter: @BGINews, @BGI_LouSomogyi, @BGI_CoachD, @BGI_DMcKinney and @BGI_CoreyBodden.
• Like us on Facebook.
