Notre Dame Unable To Overcome Late Miami Run In 77-74 Loss
Miami (19-8, 8-7) used a 13-0 run over a near five-minute stretch late in the second half to fuel a 77-74 victory over Notre Dame (16-12, 6-9) Monday night at Purcell Pavilion.
After trailing for about the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Irish wound up taking a 62-57 lead with under eight minutes to play before the Hurricanes made their run.
Here is Blue & Gold Illustrated's half-by-half recap of the Irish loss. A full box score can be FOUND HERE.
FIRST HALF
The teams went back-and-forth during the first few minutes of the game with the Irish holding an 8-7 advantage with 16:21 left in the half. All eight points for the Irish came from senior big Martinas Geben while the Hurricane got four points from guard Ja’Quan Newton and a three-pointer from guard Lonnie Walker.
Miami then fired off a 9-0 run over the next few minutes to force a timeout by the Irish trailing 16-8 with 13:48 remaining. Walker scored five points at the end of the run before the break to help the Hurricanes build an eight-point advantage.
After forcing his defender to fall, point guard Matt Farrell drained a three-pointer out of the break to stop the Miami run. Senior big man Austin Torres ignited the Irish crowd over the court of almost two minutes scoring six-straight points and taking a charge heading into the under-12 media timeout. The Irish held a 17-16 lead with 10:40 remaining.
Notre Dame struggled offensively over the next couple of minutes, but so did the Hurricanes giving the Irish an 18-16 lead at the under-8 media timeout (7:52). At the break, Notre Dame had not scored a point in 2:25 while the Hurricanes were closing on six minutes (5:56).
Miami countered Notre Dame’s 10-0 run with a 13-4 run of their own to regain a 29-24 lead going into the under-4 media timeout (3:36). Forward Dewan Huell fueled the run with five points along with two buckets from guard Chris Lykes.
Miami continued to take control during the last few minutes of the half finishing the game on a 9-5 run behind five more points from Lykes and a three-pointer via Walker at the buzzer to lead 38-29 going into halftime.
Geben led the Irish with 12 points and four rebounds in the half while Farrell had 10 points and Torres contributed six.
Overall, the Irish shot 11-of-25 (44 percent) from the field in the half including 2-of-9 (22.2 percent) behind the arc. Miami connected on 15-of-28 attempts (53.6 percent) in the opening 20 minutes including 5-of-9 from three-point range.
Walker had 11 points to finish as the leading scorer for the Hurricanes in the half. Lykes and Newton each had seven to round out the top three scorers for Jim Larranaga’s group.
SECOND HALF
Notre Dame cut into the Miami lead quickly to open the half getting buckets from forward John Mooney and guard Nik Djogo.
The Hurricanes scored seven of the next points however to push their lead back to 10 at 45-35 with 16:24 remaining.
Irish guard TJ Gibbs finally got into the scoring column with a three-pointer and a reverse layup to shrink the Miami lead to 47-42 heading into the first timeout of the final 20 minutes (13:24).
The under-12 timeout came quickly with the Irish getting a layup from Torres while the Hurricanes drilled a three-pointer via guard DJ Vasiljevic. Miami held a 50-44 advantage with 11:54 left.
After closing the gap to 50-44, Notre Dame went on a 9-0 run to take the lead over the Hurricanes 55-52 after Djogo knocked down a triple with 10:13 left. The Irish maintained that lead going into the under-8 timeout up 61-57 after forward Elijah Burns made a tough basket while being fouled. The junior converted the and-one after the break to make it 62-57 Irish.
Miami came roaring back going on a 10-0 run over 2:35 of game action to force an Irish timeout after the Hurricanes regained the lead 67-62 with 5:07 remaining. Walker continued his strong play getting five points during the run.
The Hurricanes were able to make it a 13-0 overall to take a 70-62 edge with just 3:24 remaining.
Notre Dame fought back closing the gap to 72-70 at the 1:09 mark after three-pointers from Farrell and Mooney sandwiched a Gibbs floater. But, on the other end Miami converted an and-one opportunity guard Anthony Lawrence to push the Hurricanes lead back up to five (75-70), which proved too much to overcome in the end.
The Irish had a chance with under two seconds to tie it at 77 after a missed free throw from Lykes, but Gibbs’ long attempt was no good giving the Hurricanes a 77-74 road victory.
Even hitting 17-of-28 (60.7 percent) field goal attempts in the second half wasn’t enough for the Irish. Notre Dame finished the game 28-of-53 (52.8 percent) from the field, but 7-of-20 (35 percent) behind the arc.
Geben finished with 19 points and seven rebounds to the lead the Irish while Farrell added 16 points, six rebounds and six assists to the team’s total. Gibbs scored 11 points while Mooney added 10 points of his own. Torres (8) and Djogo (7) rounded out the top scorers for the Irish.
Miami hit 31-of-58 shots (53.4 percent) offensively including 9-of-19 (47.4 percent) from three-point territory to help take down Notre Dame.
Walker tied Geben’s point total at 19 to finish as the top scorer for Miami. Center Ebuka Izundu finished with 14 points and eight rebounds to help counter Geben’s production inside. Newton (12) and Lykes (9) also played a key role in helping Miami pull off the win.
Notre Dame went a stretch of 5:18 without a point, which helped the Hurricanes use a 13-0 run to regain the lead late.
----
• 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.