Repeat Performance: Notre Dame Loses Late To Louisville
For already the fourth time this ACC season, Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey was left Saturday only to celebrate the talent level of his latest opponent and what a tough time his team is having to close out games.
The latest replay came after Louisville handed Brey another heartbreaking loss, 67-64, in front of a large and lively crowd at Purcell Pavilion.
“They’re really good … they’re really, really good,” Brey said of the Cardinals finding a way sneak out of South Bend with a victory that seemed unlikely with two minutes to go in the game. “And they made some really big shots.”
The two biggest shots were late three-point baskets from senior forward Dwayne Sutton, which helped Louisville outscore the Irish 12-5 over the last five minutes of the game to turn a 59-55 deficit into a three-point win.
Sutton entered the game with only 12 three-pointers on the season, so not exactly long-range option No. 1 with the game on the line.
“I loved the way we finished the game,” said Louisville coach Chris Mack, who similarly to Notre Dame, has seen his team struggle down the stretch of games. “This team needed to be able to fight through some adversity that they’ve been unable to.”
The same story line that has haunted the Irish all season resurfaced again — fall behind early, battle back, be in the game late, fail to finish.
The Irish (10-6, 1-4 ACC) missed its final five shots and didn’t score a field over the last two minutes of the game, allowing Louisville (13-3, 4-1) to keep Notre Dame from winning another game it probably should’ve.
“Be nice to see if we could get over the hump,” Brey said. “We’re going to have to do it. We’re going to have to make those plays to do it.”
The Irish comeback and close call was sparked by the usual steady work of senior forward John Mooney, and terrific play in the second from sophomore guard Dane Goodwin and senior guard T.J. Gibbs.
Mooney recorded a season-high 19 rebounds and added 15 points for his 10th straight double-double and his 13th of the season.
Goodwin scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half on 4-of-8 three-point shooting and Gibbs scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half after a sluggish start.
But for all the second half heroics, climbing out of the first half hole proved too much.
Notre Dame shot only 11-of-35 (31 percent) field goals and 2-of-13 three-pointers in the first half (15 percent). It had six turnovers, was out-rebounded, didn’t score from the foul line and fell behind 36-24, it’s second lowest scoring half of the season.
It marked the sixth time this season Notre Dame has been tasked with coming back from double-digit deficits. It has won one of those six.
“We gotta quit putting ourselves in the position in the first half,” Mooney said. “But we’re a poised and mature team, and we know it’s a long game, and we like second halves.”
Like the Irish, the Cardinals have also been plagued by long scoring droughts this season and theirs arrived immediately after halftime when Notre Dame went on an 11-1 run to open the second half to quickly pull to within 37-35.
Neither team led by more than five points the rest of the way but the Cardinals led when mattered most.
“You got to have somebody make a play,” Brey said. “We’ve just not been able to do that and I think we are going to be in this position over and over and over again. Maybe the basketball gods will swing it the back the other way.”
Cooled Off
After playing two of the best games of his career, Irish sophomore guard Prentiss Hubb struggled mightily against Louisville.
In the previous two games versus Syracuse and NC State, Hubb went 16-of-30 field-goal shooting and 10-of-19 three-point shooting, tying his career high 22 points against the Orange then setting a new career high against the Wolfpack with 24 points.
Against Louisville, Hubb shot only 3-of-14 from the field and 2-of-10 from three-point range for eight points, though he did add a game-high eight assists.
Hubb had scored in double figures in five of his previous six games.
State of the Union
With Notre Dame already 0-2 in ACC play, the first of the year brought an important three-game stretch for Brey’s Irish to claw back into the conference race.
Road games at Syracuse and NC State, then a home game against Louisville, were all winnable, Instead the Irish claimed only one.
“That was a long week to only come out of it 1-2,” Brey said, “2-1 would’ve been really what we needed right now so we are fighting and scratching.”
And at 1-4, keeping confidence up will be critical.
“You just got to remember, there is always time in this league to do something,” Brey said, “1-4 is a big hole, don’t get me wrong, but there is always time. That is our fate where we are.”
Most troubling to Brey is that is team is already 0-2 at home in league games. An arena that the Irish used to be nearly unbeatable has become a house of horrors the last two seasons.
Notre Dame lost eight homes game last season — including seven of its nine league games — which was the most losses at home since John MacLeod’s team lost eight in at the old Athletic and Convocation Center in 1992-93.
“They’re great kids and I love them all to death but nobody is going to help you,” Brey said. “You gotta go take one.”
Up Next: The reeling Irish return to action Wednesday (8:30 p.m., EST) when they travel to McCamish Pavilion in Atlanta to play Georgia Tech.
As one of Notre Dame’s permanent repeat ACC opponents, these two teams play twice each league season. The Irish are 7-5 since that home-and-home arrangement began for the 2013-14 season.
These two teams actually played three times last season.
Notre Dame lost 63-61 in Atlanta then won 69-59 in South Bend to split the two regular season matchups.
The Irish then defeated the Yellow Jackets 78-71 in the first round of the ACC Tournament, one of the few bright spots of last season.
Georgia Tech leads the series 11-10.
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