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Notre Dame's Season Ends With 73-63 Loss To Penn State

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Penn State (23-13) led wire-to-wire this afternoon taking down the Irish 73-63 in the second round of the NIT ending Notre Dame's (21-15) season.

Mike Brey's group started slow offensively and was unable to rally late to move on to the quarterfinals and extend an up-and-down year.

Here is Blue & Gold Illustrated's quarter-by-quarter recap of the Irish loss. Full stats can be FOUND HERE.

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FIRST QUARTER

It was a struggle offensively for the Irish going with a field goal for nearly the first five minutes before senior point guard Matt Farrell connected on a reverse layup with 5:02 left.

Before Farrell’s bucket, Penn State had built an 8-3 lead behind four points each from guard Tony Carr and forward Lamar Stevens. All three of the Irish points came from senior forward Bonzie Colson at the free throw line. The Nittany Lions led 8-5 with 4:28 remaining in the opening quarter.

A dunk by big man Austin Torres made it 11-9 Nittany Lions before Pat Chambers’ group went on a 10-1 run to close out the quarter behind three-pointers from guards Shep Garner and Josh Reaves to take a 21-10 lead.

At the end of the opening 10 minutes, Notre Dame was 3-of-12 from the floor with five turnovers. Penn State was 7-of-18 overall with a 3-of-9 clip behind the arc.

SECOND QUARTER

The offensive performance for both teams didn’t get much better to open the second quarter with a combined 2-of-12 effort in the three-and-a-half minutes. Both field goals came from the Irish going to big man Martinas Geben to make it 21-14 Penn State.

It remained a seven-point lead for Penn State going into the next timeout (3:50) with Penn State up 26-19.

A pair of free throws from Colson cut the Irish gap to 26-21 before Farrell got a jumper to fall to make it a one possession game at 26-23 with 2:44 left before halftime.

Notre Dame failed to score the rest of the way to allow Penn State to take a 28-23 edge into the break.

The Irish shot 7-of-28 (25 percent) overall in the first 20 minutes while Penn State didn’t fare much better at 9-of-30 (30 percent). The Irish were 0-for-7 behind the arc while Penn State was just 4-of-14 (28.6 percent).

Colson led the Irish with seven points and eight rebounds while Carr had nine points and four rebounds for Penn State.

THIRD QUARTER

Penn State extend its lead over the first five minutes of the third quarter by three points with a 35-27 edge.

Carr scored four points in those five minutes while Garner added a trip and Reaves a pair of free throws. Colson hit two buckets and Gibbs contributed one to pace the Irish.

A personal 5-0 run by Reaves made it 42-31 Penn State with 3:26 remaining in the quarter. Colson helped get the lead back down to nine, but the senior re-injured the left foot that cost him 15 games going up for a rebound.

Penn State extend its lead to 50-36 going into the final 10 minutes with a late three-pointer from Garner.

FOURTH QUARTER

Notre Dame started the quarter with a 7-0 to cut the gap in half, but Penn State responded with a 7-2 run to push it back to 57-45 with 6:27 remaining.

Penn State big man John Harrar recorded a dunk to make it a 14-point Penn State lead with 4:35 remaining. Farrell finally got a three-pointer to play to swing momentum back Notre Dame’s way before Carr went on a 3-0 run to again make it a 14-point lead for the Nittany Lions.

Back-to-back dunks by Torres ignited the crow inside Purcell Pavilion with the Irish down 64-54 with just under three minutes to play.

The Irish trimmed the lead to 67-59 after a three-pointer from Gibbs, but Carr answered with his own on the other end to put the final nail in the coffin for the Irish with 1:23 remaining.

In an emotional moment, Colson checked back into the game for the final 35 seconds of his last game in an Irish uniform as a bystander.

Penn State wound up winning 73-63 to upset the Irish and move on to the quarterfinals of the NIT.

Gibbs led all Irish scorers with 17 points while Colson finished 16 points and nine rebounds in his last game. Joining Colson in their final contest as a member of the Irish program were Geben (10 points, seven rebounds), Farrell (nine points, four rebounds) and Torres (six points). The first three were part of the winningest four-year senior group in program history with Torres playing a part in that stretch as well as a fifth-year senior.

Notre Dame finished the game 23-of-60 (38.3 percent) from the field and just 4-of-22 (18.2 percent) behind the arc. Penn State countered with a 22-of-28 (37.9 percent) mark and 9-of-26 (34.6 percent) from three-point territory.

Carr led all scorers with 24 points while Reaves (18), Garner (15) and Stevens (11) combined for 44 points.

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