ROSEMONT, Ill. – It’s hard to call any game this early in the Big East season a “must win,” so we’ll save the big adjectives for next month when the league schedule really heats up.
But as the difficult conference season began for Notre Dame Wednesday, it remained clear that the teams best at avoiding the upsets – and stealing a couple of road wins – will end up being closer to the top of the final league standings than the bottom.
That’s what Notre Dame was up against at DePaul and the Irish passed both important tests, starting quickly and holding on for a 92-82 win at Allstate Arena.
Brey got solid contributions from his starters to open the Big East season with a win over DePaul.
Notre Dame got contributions from everybody, but this night belonged to Zach Hillesland, especially early. The versatile forward jumpstarted the Irish attack with 12 of his career-high 17 points in the first half, and he added six rebounds and three assists with no turnovers.
The early energy and work from Hillesland sparked a steady scoring punch for Notre Dame. The Irish shot 53 percent in the first half and scored on eight of their first 10 possessions, providing some early road momentum and a 47-34 halftime lead.
“It’s really based on matchups,” Hillesland said of his career game. “If I feel like I have a slower guy on me, I’m definitely going to try and drive the ball more. It really comes down to matchups and I felt that I had the edge with my speed, so I tried to use that to my advantage.”
The quick start, especially on the road, was key. Notre Dame never trailed and the game was never tied after 7-7.
“Coming out, we were all excited to get the Big East season started, especially on the road, and a New New Eve game,” said Luke Harangody, who led the Irish with 26 points and 16 rebounds. “So it didn’t take much for us to get kick-started and get out to a nice lead.”
DePaul was the first of four road games the Irish should be favored in during a tough conference slate. The second comes Saturday at St. John’s. Holding serve in these two games before No. 8 Georgetown comes to the Joyce Center Monday will be an important start to this season. In fact, Notre Dame plays four of its first six league games on the road, so banking a couple early road wins brings added importance.
“We knew coming in that these first two games being road games, this was big for us, and I think it was important coming in to take care of business,” Harangody said.
After a crisp first half, a sluggish offensive start to the second half allowed DePaul to climb to within 49-42. The Blue Demons made a couple more mini runs midway through the second half and got to within eight, but the Irish responded to each one and hit eight of nine foul shots down the stretch to keep DePaul at bay.
“We showed that we are an older team, a veteran team,” Harangody said. “And we got a good shot every time down the court and that is going to be huge for us in road games.”
Where Hillesland took care of the big buckets and momentum bursts in the first half, Ryan Ayers did his thing after the break, scoring 11 of his 14 points in the second half on 3-of-4 three-point shooting.
It was an impressive balanced offensive attack from Notre Dame, with all five starters scoring in double figures. Tory Jackson added 12 points with good foul shooting down the stretch and Kyle McAlarney added 14 points.
More notable was the balanced rebounding effort the Irish recorded against DePaul. On a team where Luke Harangody grabs almost one third of the rebounds each game, six different Irish had at least three boards and three got at least six to help Notre Dame win the rebound battle 40-31.
“I thought it was really a key in our first Big East game to set the tone,” Irish coach Mike Brey said of the rebounding effort. “It was a little bit of everybody. It’s good to start the Big East and have a rebounding presence, which is a concern of ours in this league.”
The secret to success for Notre Dame in the Big East this season will often be best measured by the scoring offense. When the Irish scored more than 80 points in league play last year, they were 9-1. When they failed to hit 70 points they were 3-2.
The Irish will spend little time celebrating this New Year’s Eve win. In fact, instead of playing any Dick Clark on the bus ride home, Brey had every intention of sharing some St. John’s game tape with his team. Such is life in the Big East.
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