The Irish beat the Eagles 80-70 and looked A LOT more like a Mike Brey team against a much-needed weak opponent
Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s basketball team finally picked up their first ACC win of the season today, defeating a fellow ACC bottom-feeder in the Boston College Eagles by a final score of 80 to 70.
The Irish improved to 4-8 on the season and 1-5 in conference, picking up their first win since a December 23rd victory over Bellarmine. They’d lost 4 straight and had 1 game postponed over the past 3 weeks leading up to today.
ND was led on the day in scoring by the trio of Dane Goodwin, Nate Laszewski, and Prentiss Hubb, who combined for 50 points.
Goodwin caught fire in the second half despite playing nearly all of it with 4 fouls, making 5-of-9 from long range and finishing with 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting on the day.
Laszewski continued to cement himself as one of the best and most efficient players in the ACC, shooting 7-of-10 from the floor and 2-of-3 from deep while scoring 16 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. Meanwhile, Hubb secured himself a double-double, scoring 13 points and dishing out 10 assists while also snagging 5 boards and only committing 2 turnovers, playing much more within himself than he had in some recent games — which was VERY encouraging to see.
Juwan Durham also had a really nice game, picking up his 4th career double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds while also swatting a couple shots. Cormac Ryan added 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists as well.
The Irish shot 48% from the field and 45% from long range. They also played a squeaky-clean game, finishing with just 7 turnovers on the day (they committed 0 in the first half). The only rough moments came at the foul line (4-for-10 as a team on the day) and in the last few minutes of the game, wherein the Irish turned the ball over a few times while sloppily closing out the victory.
For the Eagles, the majority of their production came from senior Steffon Mitchell, who had his double-double secured fairly early in the second half and ultimately finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds.
Jay Heath (14 points, 4 rebounds), C.J. Felder (10 points, 9 rebounds), and Wynston Tabbs (14 points, 3 assists) did some damage as well, but it wouldn’t prove to be enough on the day. BC shot 43% from the field and 31% from deep and failed to out-rebound the Irish, who won that by a 37-36 count.
The Irish likely will play next on Sunday, January 24th at the Miami Hurricanes after Monday’s road game at Howard on Martin Luther King Jr. Day was postponed due to COVID issues with the Howard team. The Irish could pick up their first back-to-back wins of the season, considering Miami is also 1-5 in the ACC, has been plagued by injuries this year, and just got blown out by Boston College this past week.
