• Box Score
After tying the 1978-79 school record by scoring at least 80 points in its first five games of a new season, head coach Mike Brey’s Notre Dame team hit a deep freeze during a 72-58 loss to Northwestern (4-1) on Friday night at the University Illinois-Chicago Pavilion.
The Irish converted only 32 percent from the floor, most notably 7-of-31 (.226) from three-point range. Early in the contest, Northwestern went into a 1-3-1 matchup zone that the Irish were not able to crack despite getting a number of open looks. Between them, All-American Luke Harangody and senior Ben Hansbrough were 0-of-13 from beyond the arc, with Harangody missing all six of his attempts and Hansbrough all seven.
 |
|
Brey's Irish managed just 22.6 percent from beyond the arc in the loss to Northwestern.
|
“I thought we had some great open looks … you have to make some shots over the top of that (zone),” said Brey of the team’s first game away from its home court. “And defensively, we lost some guys (on some easy baskets).”
Northwestern was minus leading scorer and rebounder Kevin Coble, a 6-8 forward who is out for the season with an injury, but rode a career-high 25-point performance by sophomore John Shurna. The 6-8 forward created matchup problems for the Irish with his combination of three-point shooting (3-of-5), drives to the bucket and eight rebounds.
Notre Dame converted only four of first 17 shots from the field while Northwestern built a 23-17 first-half lead. Harangody, who made just one of his first six attempts, tied the game at 27, but Shurna drilled a shot from 30 feet right before the halftime horn sounded to give Northwestern a 30-27 advantage at the intermission.
Early in the second half, a Hansbrough drive to the basket gave the Irish a 36-35 edge — their last lead of the game. It was the lone field goal by the senior guard, who finished 1-of-10 overall and had four points to go with five assists.
From there, 5-10 Northwestern junior guard Michael Thompson, a Chicago native, took control with consecutive threes and then a backdoor feed from Jeremy Nash. Another three by Shurna provided a 50-38 cushion at the 12:08 mark. Whereas Notre Dame made only four of its first 14 field goal attempts to open the second half, Northwestern connected on eight of its 12 shots (67 percent), and at one point was 8-of-15 on its treys.
After getting out-scored 15-2, the Irish then staged a 13-2 spurt. A three by junior Tim Abromaitis, two free throws by classmate Carleton Scott and a Harangody reverse lay-up cut the Notre Dame deficit to 52-51. Northwestern freshman Alex Marcotullio, who finished with a career-high 13 points, answered with a three and two free throws, and sophomore Luka Mirkovic added another free throw to push the lead back up to 58-51.
After Abromaitis converted his third trey to cut the Wildcat lead to 58-54, the most frustrating sequence of the game occurred. The Irish missed three open treys, two by Harangody and one by Abromaitis, after a couple of offensive rebounds. However, the score was still only 58-56 when Marcotullio tallied another clutch three that would begin a 14-2 Northwestern run to close the game, mainly from the foul line. The Wildcats also did an excellent job of protecting the ball, committing only one turnover in the second half and seven in the entire contest.
Harangody paced the Irish with 21 points (7-of-19 overall) and nine rebounds, while Abromaitis had 13 points (5-of-13 overall, 3-of-9 from three-point range) and Tory Jackson chipped in with 11, highlighted by three treys. Notre Dame also received another strong effort off the bench from Scott, who scored seven points, grabbed eight rebounds and provided a defensive presence on occasion.
Brey’s squad will have to make a quick turnaround when it plays for third place tomorrow afternoon against head coach Rick Majerus’ St. Louis Billikens, who lost to Iowa State in the earlier game of the four-team tournament.
“I told the guys we weren’t going to be undefeated,” said Brey about having to bounce back quickly. “You can’t feel sorry for yourself, or you’ll leave this town 0-2.”
