NIK DJOGO IS A STAR
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s basketball team defeated the Boston College Eagles on the road today, winning 79 to 73 and extending their winning streak against BC to 13 games.
The Irish were led on the day by the surprisingly great play of Nikola Djogo and his 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field (4-of-6 from 3-point range). ND also got strong contributions from Prentiss Hubb (16 points, 4 assists), John Mooney (15 points, 13 rebounds), and T.J. Gibbs (19 points on 7-of-11 shooting), who officially surpassed the 1,000-point mark in his Irish career. Overall, Notre Dame shot 53% from the field and 50% from deep.
Boston College was led by Ky Bowman (25 points, 10 rebounds), and got some surprising help of their own from Jared Hamilton, who scored 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting despite a season average of 4.2 points per game. Other guys who chipped in included Jordan Chatman (14 points) and Nik Popovic (14 points, 6 rebounds). The Eagles shot 47% from the field and 32% from long range on the day, and out-rebounded the Irish 35-28 despite losing the game.
The first half saw the Irish shoot the ball much better than usual, going 50% from the field and a scorching-hot 58% from long range (7-of-12). Much of that was driven by Nikola Djogo, who earned the fourth start of his Notre Dame career and managed to score 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting in the first half. Freshman Prentiss Hubb had a great start to the game as well, scoring 10 points in the 1st.
Despite the strong start from the Irish, BC trailed by only 5 at halftime, driven by Ky Bowman’s 13 first half points. The Eagles shot 42% from the field and 27% from deep.
In the second half, the Eagles came out firing, attacking the hoop and quickly tying things up at 39 just 3 minutes in. From there, it was pretty back-and-forth for much of the half, with both teams trading slight leads before the other team responded and evened things up.
Eventually, the Irish held a 71-68 lead with just under 2 minutes to play, and forced a turnover as the ball was deflected off Nik Popovic’s foot out of bounds. On the other end, Djogo made a fantastic move and took the ball to the hoop for a layup, extending the Irish lead to 5 with 1:23 to go.
The next Boston College possession featured multiple offensive rebounds and chances for the Eagles to score, but the Irish held serve and finally took control of the ball, and ultimately the game, knocking down enough free throws down the stretch to finish off the victory 79 to 73 (although not without the Eagles hitting a couple shots in the end to almost make it interesting).
The Irish improved to 12-10 overall on the year and are now 2-7 in ACC play. They play next on Wednesday night at the Miami Hurricanes.
