As far as exhibition seasons go, the two games Notre Dame played this week didn’t do much to raise the moderate expectations for the program heading into this season. But the easy 75-54 win Friday over Division II Quincy at least showed a marked improvement from Game 1 to Game 2, once the Irish shook off a sluggish start.
Notre Dame struggled to score and even trailed Quincy early in the game, until it finally found some inside scoring and held Quincy to just 32-percent shooting to take control of this one in front of 9,008 at Purcell Pavilion.
Senior forward Luke Harangody paced a group of four Irish players to score in double figures with 17 points to go along with his game-high 11 rebounds. Senior guard Ben Hansbrough added 14 points. Junior forward Tyrone Nash and senior guard Tory Jackson each added 11 points to round out double-digit scorers.
Harangody again paced the Irish with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
“You look at the box score today and it is pretty balanced across,” Harangody said. “And for that to happen in big games when maybe I’m not having such a good game is really important. That’s going to be huge for us.”
In the first exhibition game Sunday against Lewis, Harangody and Hansbrough were the only two Irish players to score in double digits.
The win Friday was far from a masterpiece, but it did offer some help for a couple of problem areas that were evident in the 70-54 win over Lewis in the first exhibition game.
Notre Dame shot just 4 of 19 from three-point range against Lewis, it relied on Harangody to score more than half the team’s baskets, and hardly played any subs because the outcome remained in doubt well into the second half. Four starters played more than 35 minutes in a game the Irish actually trailed 44-42 in the second half. The Irish had 16 assists and 14 turnovers in that game, compared to 18 assists and 10 turnovers the second exhibition.
“The first game was the first game,” Hansbrough said of the offensive improvement. “There were a lot of first game mistakes, everybody wasn’t all playing together. [Friday] our movement was better. Everybody was playing together better. We just played better together as a team.”
With the better scoring balance and the freedom to substitute with the comfortable lead in Game 2, the Irish did a better job in two of those three worrisome areas Friday. The three-point shooting remained sketchy for the second straight game, but not for a lack of trying.
Seven different Irish players launched a total of 33 three-point shots, but only connected on eight of those tries. In the two exhibition games, Notre Dame is only 12 of 52 shooting the three ball (23 percent).
Under head coach Mike Brey, Notre Dame typically has two or three sharpshooters and scores about one third of its points from beyond the arc. Great outside shooting doesn’t appear to be part of the makeup of this year’s team, at least through the exhibition games.
“We’re so good of a penetrate-and-kick team, that we’ll penetrate and so many people will be wide open from three-point range,” said Hansbrough, who was 3-of-9 three-point shooting. “It’s a great look so you have to take it. Are 33 of those wide open, probably not, but 80 percent of them are.”
The Irish found themselves in a scrap with Quincy through the early going, trailing 17-15 before taking control of the game with a 13-0 run that sparked a 25-7 advantage over the last 10 minutes of the first half to take a 40-24 lead at intermission.
Nash provided much of the energy and production during the scoring run, with nine of his 11 points coming before the break. Nash was perfect from the floor in the half, hitting both of his field goal attempts and all five of his foul shots. The Irish lead hovered around the 20-point mark throughout most of the second half.
“We talked about not playing in such a hurry like we did [against Lewis],” Brey said. “We still played a little fast at times but it was better. You have guys getting comfortable in their roles.”
With four seniors gone from last year’s team and five new faces on the Irish roster, Brey needs to use these early games to go deep into his bench and tinker with some lineup combinations. He got that chance Friday.
Instead of relying on his starters against Lewis, Brey was able to get seven players at least 15 minutes and nine players at least five against Quincy. All four of the Irish freshman were in together late in the game.
The Irish will get six full days off before opening the regular season on Saturday, Nov. 14, against North Florida.
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