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Notre Dame's defense, freshmen allow Irish to pull away from Bowling Green

Notre Dame freshmen Ven-Allen Lubin (left) and JJ Starling played key roles in ND's 82-66 victory over Bowling Green on Tuesday night.
Notre Dame freshmen Ven-Allen Lubin (left) and JJ Starling played key roles in ND's 82-66 victory over Bowling Green on Tuesday night. (Matt Cashore-USA Today Sports)

SOUTH BEND – The crowd in Purcell Pavilion Tuesday night was listed at 4,863.

Call them witnesses.

They were the first bystanders to be able to attest that there is hope on the defensive end for this season’s version of Notre Dame men’s basketball.

The evidence came out of the blue.

Struggling to separate from a 2-3 Bowling Green team from Ohio that came in with average stats and wins over Air Force and Oakland, the Irish iced the Falcons’ offense for eight minutes and 16 seconds to close out an 82-66 victory.

Eight minutes and 16 seconds. Seriously. This Irish team, 5-0 after securing its largest margin of victory to date, CAN get stops.

“You know, I challenged them a little bit at halftime,” said Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, whose team held a precarious 42-40 lead after allowing Bowling Green, a 41-percent shooting team entering the game, to shoot 53.3% from the field in the first half. “I said ‘Fellas, come on, man. You know, I'm tired of answering questions (about the defense).’”

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The skeptics about Notre Dame’s defense will need more proof, understandably, but everyone’s sold on the two Irish freshmen delivering major minutes and big plays.

“They played like old guys tonight,” Brey said. “They saved us.”

That they did.

JJ Starling, the 6-4 guard from Baldwinsville, N.Y., dazzled with his drives through traffic to the basket, going 10-for-11 from the field on a 23-point night with six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block.

And Ven-Allen Lubin, a 6-8 forward from Orlando, Fla., who saw snow for the first time in the past week – “It’s beautiful, just looking out the window,” he said, “but when you have to walk in it, it's kind of a different story” – went 6-for-9 around the basket and contributed 12 points and four rebounds in 16 minutes.

“I'm very comfortable right now,” Starling said. “I'm playing more aggressive and my teammates have been in my ear to make sure I'm staying aggressive.”

“It really wasn't hard for me,” he said of the drives. “We were playing the right way. So everything opened up. And we've been harping on that for the last couple of weeks. If we play the right way, the ball is gonna find the right shot.”

“I think it's a big step for him,” added Brey, “because his offensive decisions were aggressive, but not forced.”

A 3-pointer by Samari Curtis got Bowling Green to within a point at 65-64 with 8:26 to play. The Falcons wouldn’t hit another shot until 11 seconds remained.

Increased intensity on the defensive end helped. There also was a little zone thrown in that produced a couple of transition buckets for the Irish, and some perfect timing on a double-team down low led to one of the eight Falcon turnovers. Rashaun Agee, who had 13 points in the first half, did not score in the second. Curtis had 14 points and Leon Ayers III had 13, seven below his average.

But whatever success the Irish have on the defensive side includes a big dose of 6-5 grad student Cormac Ryan.

“You’ve got to move Cormac around on anybody who's starting an uptick (getting hot),” said Brey, who believes Ryan’s defense is critical for his club but has put a dent in his offensive game. “You can put him on the guy you think is gonna be the toughest guy and then throughout the game, I'm always going, ‘Who do we put him on?’ So then we put him on their point guard because we were having a hard time keeping the initial drive out. He's thoroughly exhausted by the time he gets open shots.

“But he continually guards and defends and puts his chest on people, and we put him on anybody who we’re worried about schematically.“

Ryan finished with eight points, a couple below his average, on 3-for-9 shooting, but snatched six rebounds to tie for the team-high.

As the Falcons’ drought continued, the Irish offense clicked.

Brey couldn’t have been more pleased with how the Irish were especially good when the score was tight.

“Just as impressive, maybe more impressive, was how efficient we were offensively,” he said. “I mean we got great shots every time or we got fouled. We just really moved it, made reads …”

A drive for a bucket and a couple of free throws by Starling created a 73-64 cushion, but the shot that seemed to zap any remaining wind from the Falcons was Nate Laszewski’s third 3-pointer of the night. It came with the shot clock at zero and gave the Irish a 76-64 edge with a little over three minutes to go.

Laszewski had another fine night with 22 points (he came in averaging 19), three rebounds and three assists.

Dane Goodwin was the fourth Irish in double figures with 11 and also had six rebounds.

With stronger defensive play early, the Irish could have run away with it. They had only one turnover in the first half and shot 46.7% from the field. Still, there were nine first-half lead changes because stops were in short supply.

Notre Dame finished with seven steals, a 55.4% field goal percentage (65.4% in the second half), 16 assists and just five turnovers, a marked improvement from the previous four contests.

Where do they go from here?

St. Bonaventure (3-2), which topped Bowling Green 81-68 on Nov. 19, awaits in Elmont, N.Y., Friday at 4 p.m. EST, before a big home clash against Michigan State on Nov. 30.

Box score: Notre Dame 82, Bowling Green 66

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