Advertisement
basketball Edit

Notre Dame Sinks Hampton In NIT Opener

Don’t miss out on any of our exclusive football, basketball and recruiting coverage. Click here to get your 30-day free trial!

It was smooth sailing for Notre Dame in an 84-63 win in the opening round of the NIT over the Hampton Pirates.

The Irish led by double-digits for the majority of the game to move on to the second round to face the winner of Penn State and Temple.

Here is Blue & Gold Illustrated's quarter-by-quarter recap of the Irish win.

Advertisement

FIRST QUARTER

It was the Martinas Geben and TJ Gibbs show early on for the Irish with the duo scoring the first 10 points with Geben leading the way with six to give Notre Dame a 10-8 lead with 4:44 left in the quarter.

Guard Jermaine Marrow paced Hampton scoring six of the team’s first eight points in the early stages.

The Irish went on a 13-4 run over the next four-plus minutes to take their largest lead at 23-12 behind three points from Geben, Gibbs and Bonzie Colson to go with a bucket via Matt Farrell and a pair of free throws from Austin Torres.

Hampton closed the quarter on a 4-0 run to make it 23-16 Notre Dame at the end of the first quarter. Geben (9) and Gibbs (7) led the scoring for an Irish team that shot 9-of-18 in the quarter.

SECOND QUARTER

Notre Dame extended its lead back to double-digits in the early minutes of the second quarter with Colson making a layup off a nice pass from Rex Pflueger.

Hampton responded on the other end, but the Irish then reeled off a 7-2 run fueled by Gibbs’ second three-pointer of the game to take a 32-20 lead with 6:08 remaining in the first half.

The Irish scored the next seven points with Gibbs, Farrell and Nik Djogo each getting buckets to push the Irish lead to 39-20.

Hampton reeled off a 5-0 run behind forward Trevond Booker and guard Kalin Fisher to close the gap to 39-26 before Notre Dame went on their own 5-0 run with Colson knocking down a running jumper and Gibbs drilling his third three-pointer. The Irish led 44-26 with 2:05 remaining in the half.

But Edward Joyner’s group responded well going on another run, this time 8-0, to close the lead to just 10 points with forward Charles Wilson-Fisher getting two baskets and Fisher adding a three-pointer.

A dunk by Irish big man Austin Torres ended the half to give his team a 46-34 edge at the break.

Gibbs led the way for the Irish with 15 points while Geben went for 11 points and Colson notched seven points and six rebounds. Notre Dame finished 18-of-38 (47.4 percent) from the floor and 4-of-11 (36.4 percent) behind the arc.

Fisher (10) and Wilson-Fisher combined for 18 of the team’s 34 points while Marrow added eight of his own. The Pirates shot 35.1 percent (13-of-37) in the half, but just 2-of-11 (18.2 percent) on their three-point attempts.

THIRD QUARTER

Geben continued his strong start with a bucket to open the second half, but was answered by Morrow on the other end.

Farrell highlighted what would be another run by Notre Dame (7-0) getting a layup to fall to start it and ending it with a no-look pass to Geben which led to a three-point play for the Lithuanian.

The Irish missed their next five shots to lead 55-39 with 4:19 left in the quarter.

A three-pointer from Pflueger pushed Notre Dame’s lead to 61-39 with just over three minutes remaining. Marrow and Fisher each got baskets over the next 50 seconds, but Notre Dame remained up by 20-plus.

Gibbs connected on a layup with 42 seconds left in the quarter to give the Irish their largest lead at 23 points (66-43) heading into the final quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER

Colson got the scoring going in the final quarter before the Pirates hit back-to-back three-pointers to close the gap a bit with one coming from Marrow and the other via guard Lysander Bracey.

Djogo answered though with a three-pointer of his own to get the Irish back on track up 71-49 with 8:33 remaining.

Farrell and Djogo notched another pair of baskets with the Irish leading 75-53 with 5:49 left.

It was a quiet few minutes up until the next media timeout with Notre Dame up 79-58 with 2:44 remaining as the team was in cruise mode at that point.

The highlight of the game for the Irish came during the final minute when former walk-on forward Matt Gregory drilled a corner three-pointer and walk-on guard Liam Nelligan followed with a layup to put the Irish faithful on their feet.

Notre Dame cruised to the 84-63 win over the Pirates to move on to the second round of the NIT.

Geben led the way for the Irish with 18 points while Gibbs was not far behind with 17 points and six rebounds. Colson notched a double-double going for 14 points and 12 rebounds. Farrell added nine points and six assists to round of the top four scorers.

Djogo put together a strong night overall going for seven points, nine rebounds and two assists. Pflueger had just three points, but added seven rebounds and six assists.

Notre Dame finished the game 33-of-79 (41.8 percent) from the floor, but just 7-of-27 (25.9 percent) behind the arc.

Marrow led all scorers with 21 points to pace the Pirates. Wilson-Fisher finished with 13 points and Fisher added 12 points of his own.

Hampton shot 30 percent overall (24-of-80) and 6-of-26 (23.1 percent) from three-point territory.

----

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.

Advertisement