Irish falter in the second half on back-to-back Sundays.
Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images
The Irish entered Sunday hoping to bounce back against the Georgia Bulldogs after a less than stellar outing last Sunday against Marquette. Both teams would trade blows early on, being all knotted at 7 four minutes in. With just over 15 minutes Laszewski would connect from deep. Then followed by Ryan doing the same a minute later pushing the Irish lead to 13-7.
back-to-back threes from Nate Laszewski and Cormac Ryan make it a 6-0 Irish run pic.twitter.com/mrpWNpg10e
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) December 18, 2022
Both teams would alternate spurts and dry spells for the next few minutes, until the Bulldogs would take their first lead of the game 19-18 after a 6-0 run with just over 9 minutes remaining in the half.
16 of our 24 coming from the rookie-vet trio
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) December 18, 2022
24 | 22 | 6:24 in the first #GoIrish ?? pic.twitter.com/JY7aeHH0cs
Each team for the would settle into their identies in the latter portion of the half. Notre Dame making Georgia pay from deep and Georgia making the Irish pay underneath. Notre Dame held a thin 30-29 lead heading into the TV timeout with just over 3 minutes in the half. The Bulldogs would up the pressure in the final 3 minutes pressing the Irish and bullying them underneath. Notre Dame kept the damage to a minimum but this allowed Georgia to enter the half up 41-36.
? Cormac is cooking — 10 first-half points, 4-4 from the field#GoIrish pic.twitter.com/1mEkrT8VAF
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) December 18, 2022
Georgia would continue the pressure early in the second exte their lead to 52-42 five minutes in. Notre Dame would miss 9 out of 10 shots until Ryan would connect from deep with just under 13 minutes remaining cutting the lead to single digits 52-45. The Bulldogs would keep the Irish at arms length holding a 58-48 lead with 10 minutes to go. Notre Dame would then go on a 7-0 run cutting the lead to three 58-55 with just under 8 minutes remaining.
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) December 18, 2022
ESPN2 | @natelaszewski pic.twitter.com/NBh3mwUNyl
The Bulldogs wouldn’t allow that to last, pushing the lead back out to 10 65-55 with just over 6 minutes remaining. Notre Dame would call a timeout to stop the bleeding after the lead was pushed to 12 with just over 5 minutes left. It would do the Irish very little as Georgia would push the lead out to as much as 18 in the final 5 minutes. This game would end in very similair fashion to last week with a Irish collapse in the second half loosing 77-62.
a game-high 20 points for Nate Laszewski
— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) December 19, 2022
final score from @HHoopsgiving in Atlanta pic.twitter.com/bEYHIw3Vzu
They fall to 7-4 and will face Florida State on Wednesday at 8:30pm ET.