Wake Forest Beats Notre Dame, Ends The Irish Must-Win Tour
This time around for Notre Dame, there was no rabbit in the hat or any late-game tricks up its sleeve.
All the magic the Irish demonstrated during a three-game winning streak that included two last-second wins couldn’t be rekindled Saturday as Wake Forest handed Notre Dame an 84-73 loss, and likely with it, an invitation to the NIT.
For most of the second half, the script appeared to be playing out again in favor of Notre Dame.
Trailing 41-30 at halftime, the Irish used a 10-0 run and some solid extended defensive work to take a 57-55 lead with 9:25 remaining.
The two teams swapped the lead five times over the next three minutes but once the Deacons (13-15; 6-12 ACC) went up 62-61, they steadily pulled away, making clutch shots to answer every Irish push.
“I love that we battled back, we always make it interesting,” said Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey. “We just couldn’t quite get over the hump.”
For Wake, which entered the game 14th in the 15-team ACC — but fresh off a win over No. 7 Duke — this victory gave it consecutive ACC wins for the first time in three years.
“Wake has played with a great vibe all week, with a belief all week,” Brey said, “And they’ve gotten two wins because of it.”
Wake looked to take control of the game with a 15-3 run late in the first half that helped it to a 39-23 lead.
Irish senior forward John Mooney was about the only bright spot during a miserable start that led to a 41-30 Irish halftime deficit.
Mooney had 10 of Notre Dame’s 23 points and 11 of his team’s 17 rebounds in the first half — recording his 24th double-double of the season before the break.
Mooney finished with a team-high 24 points and 17 rebounds, one of four Irish in double figures.
But as good as Mooney was, 7-foot junior Wake Forest center Olivier Sarr was even better, recording the ninth double-double of his career with 30 points on 12-of-16 shooting and 17 rebounds, both career highs.
“We had no answers for the big fella tonight,” Brey said, “He’s so gifted, tried a little bit of everything.”
In many respects, the Deacons beat Notre Dame at its own game, finishing 7-of-15 three-point shooting to only 6-of-22 for the Irish — which missed its first eight attempts from long range.
As a team, Notre Dame shot only 26-of-65 (40 percent) from the field and not one Irish player shot better than 50 percent.
Sophomore forward Nate Laszewski finished with 15 points, senior guard T.J. Gibbs had 11 and sophomore guard Dane Goodwin added 10 to round out Irish double-digit scorers.
Player of the Game: Since we give this to a Notre Dame player each game and can’t award it to Sarr, Mooney is the only candidate. Playing nearly every minute of the second-half, Mooney exhaustedly tried to keep his team in the game, scoring 14 of his points after halftime.
Turning Point: With Notre Dame leading 61-60, Wake Forest used a mini 6-0 run to take the lead for good.
Freebies the Difference
As it has all season, Wake Forest — the league’s leading foul shooting team based on attempts — lived at the line and finished 23-of-27 (85.2 percent) from the stripe.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, struggled from the foul line, going only 15-of-24 for the game and 10-of-18 in the second half, including one miss from Gibbs — almost a 90-percent foul shooter — on the front end of a 1-and-1 attempt.
State of the Union
If all the bracketologists and college basketball analysts are correct, the loss to Wake Forest leaves Notre Dame only one route to the NCAA Tournament — secure an automatic bid by winning the ACC Tournament.
A win over Wake Forest would’ve left Notre Dame (18-11; 9-9 ACC) alone in fifth place in the league standings. The loss, instead, drops it into a .500 log-jam with Syracuse, Clemson and NC State for that No. 5 spot.
The Irish shortcoming this season has been a lack of impressive and important Quad 1&2 wins.
And while the Irish get a shot at home Wednesday against current No. 6 Florida State, which lost to Clemson today, a win there will likely not cancel out today’s loss.
Up Next:
A game against Florida State that could’ve been hyped as one of the biggest and most important since the Notre Dame Elite Eight years, had some excitement sucked out of it after the Irish loss to Wake Forest.
Notre Dame hosts the Seminoles Wednesday (9 p.m., EST) in a rematch from earlier this season.
The Irish hung in and played well against then-No. 5 Florida State on Jan. 25, but some questionable officiating in the closing minutes contributed to an 85-84 Notre Dame loss in Tallahassee.
The defeat dropped Notre Dame to 2-6, it’s low-water mark of this ACC season, but some adamant post-game remarks by Brey about the officiating seemed to spark his team.
The head coach cut the $20,000 check to pay his ACC fine and his team immediately went on a three-game winning streak that stabilized the season.
A relatively new series that only dates back to 2011 when Florida State bounced Notre Dame 71-57 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, both teams have won five times. The Irish are 3-0 all-time against Florida State at Purcell Pavilion, including an 84-69 victory in February of 2018, the last time these two met in South Bend.
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