Observations: Notre Dame surges past Chaminade in 90-64 win
For 20 minutes in the Maui Invitational Tuesday night, Notre Dame provided the blueprint for making a potential win feel like a loss. The Irish found themselves in an unwanted close call with Division II Chaminade. They trailed in the final three minutes of the first half and led 41-38 at the break only after a Chaminade missed layup created a transition chance.
The second half, though, quickly removed all doubt.
Notre Dame (3-1) beat Chaminade 90-64, advancing to a Wednesday night meeting with Texas A&M in the final Maui game (11:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). Six Irish players scored in double figures, led by guard Dane Goodwin’s 17 points. Forward Nate Laszewski had 15 points and 15 rebounds. Notre Dame averaged 1.32 points per possession, shot 56.1 percent from the floor and 46.2 percent on three-pointers.
Here are some observations from the game.
Wesley’s early aggression
For better or worse, freshman guard Blake Wesley comes on the court and makes things happen.
In this one, it was a lot of good.
He’s a shot hunter who will let a three-pointer rip off the dribble if his defender doesn’t have a hand up, will put his head down and drive when nothing is happening and can finish through traffic. In the Maui opener loss to Saint Mary’s, it got him in trouble a few times. In this game, it carried the Irish offense in the first half.
Notre Dame will have to live with moments where he’s a bit out of control or forces things. His decision-making with the ball still has to improve, though he looked comfortable running the pick-and-roll with forward Paul Atkinson Jr. He had a first-half pass to Atkinson for a layup on a middle ball screen where he felt two defenders go with him and flipped the ball over both of them to Atkinson.
It’s impossible to miss Wesley’s assertiveness and fearlessness. His cross-court transition pass to guard Cormac Ryan in the second half was the best example of it. He finished the game with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists. He was 6-of-12 from the floor in 24 minutes, with no turnovers.
Offense wakes up, eventually
Notre Dame took a 12-4 lead to start the game and then, aside from Wesley, fell asleep at the wheel for the rest of the half. The Irish committed seven turnovers, had just five assists on 16 made field goals and had a 3:45 scoring drought. Atkinson, a high percentage shooter, even struggled to finish at the basket.
All told, the offense wasn’t crisp. Decision-making was suspect. Aggression was lacking. On one first-half possession, two open shooters caught a pass and didn’t even look to shoot, instantly passing it off instead. Ryan ran a pick-and-pop with guard Trey Wertz as the pop man, but he didn’t see Wertz open in the corner when two defenders stayed with him.
Whatever was said at halftime clearly resonated.
Notre Dame scored on 11 of its first 13 second-half possessions and ripped off 21 straight points before Chaminade scored. Chaminade opened the half in a 1-3-1 zone, which Notre Dame sliced up for a corner three-pointer from Laszewski. It seemed to give the Irish some juice.
Notre Dame attacked Chaminade with a ball screen-heavy offense in the second half. It created open three-pointers on the wing when Chaminade helped on Atkinson or Laszewski. Those two capitalized on single coverage when they had it. Notre Dame’s guards ran the pick-and-roll effectively. The Irish shot 63.6 percent in the second half.
Rotation remains small
Head coach Mike Brey used seven players in Notre Dame’s Nov. 16 win over High Point and Monday loss to Saint Mary’s. He didn’t play an eighth man against Chaminade until he emptied the bench with 2:39 remaining and the Irish leading 86-60.
Sophomore forward Elijah Taylor isn’t in the rotation as the backup five behind Atkinson right now. Instead, the Irish shift Laszewski down a spot and play four guards around him. It has sufficed against a low-major (High Point), a four-guard team (Saint Mary’s) and Division II opponent. Whether it continues to work remains to be seen.
The smaller lineup does, though seem to open more opportunities for Laszewski on the perimeter. He made two three-pointers against Chaminade off pick-and-pops where the Silverswords’ five was too deep in the paint to contest.
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