The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were able to hold off a strong second half comeback by the UConn Huskies as they defeated them 73-67 behind Kyle McAlarney’s career-high 32 points at the Joyce Center on Saturday night. The win was Notre Dame’s 30th straight at the Joyce Center, which is good for third longest in the NCAA.
Notre Dame (12-2, 2-0) also got double-doubles from Rob Kurz and Luke Harangody. Both of them each had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Harangody was only 5-of-23 from the floor. Tory Jackson added 7 rebounds and 11 assists for the Fighting Irish.
UConn (10-3, 1-1) was led by Jeff Adrien who had a double-double of his own. He finished the game with 16 points and 11 rebounds. A.J. Price and Jerome Dyson, who were a combined 7-of-23 from the floor, both finished with 13 points. Hasheem Thabeet nearly missed a triple-double as he finished the game with 8 points, 9 rebounds and a career-high tying 10 blocked shots.
Notre Dame started out the first half on a 29-10 run in the first 9 minutes of the game behind four 3-pointers by McAlarney. Notre Dame pushed the lead to 21 points at one point in the first half. UConn was able to cut the lead to 15 points at the half, going into the locker room trailing 47-32.
The first part of the second half was the polar opposite of the first half. UConn came out firing on all cylinders and kept cutting down the Irish lead. On the strength of an 8-0 run, the Huskies took their first lead of the game at 58-57 with just over 6 minutes to go in the game. It was a shortlived lead though as the Irish got a tip-in and a 3-pointer from Kurz to pull ahead by 3 points. McAlarney stuck the dagger in the Huskies as he hit his sixth 3-pointer of the night.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, their poor first half was too much to overcome in the game. The Huskies return to the friendly confines of Gampel Pavilion on Tuesday night as they will host the St. John’s Red Storm at 7 PM. The game will be covered locally in Connecticut on MyTV9.
Notes and Observations:
The starters were A.J. Price, Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson, Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet.
This was the second game at the Joyce Center today as the Notre Dame women got pummeled by Candace Parker and the Tennessee Volunteers 87-63.
This was the first of ESPN’s College Basketball Gameday games where they go to a campus for the show and then the Saturday night primetime game. However it was disappointing to me that the game wasn’t broadcast in widescreen high def (HD).
UConn’s charter plane from Newark, NJ on Friday morning was the same plane that Barack Obama and his campaign staff flew to New Hampshire on.
UConn shot 39.1% (27-69) from the floor while Notre Dame shot only 37% (27-73).
The difference was the 3-point shooting as UConn shot an abysmal 11.8% (2-17) while Notre Dame made 9-of-17 (52.9%).
UConn’s free throw shooting was also suspect as they were 11-of-17 (64.7%). Two of this misses were by Jeff Adrien at key points down the stretch. Notre Dame did it’s job as they were 10-of-11 (90.9%). As you can see, making your free throws down the stretch will win ball games.
UConn was outrebounded 48-44.
50 of UConn’s 67 points came in the paint.
