Observations: JJ Starling helps Notre Dame pull away from Bowling Green in 82-66 win

Notre Dame could breathe easy in the final minutes of a game. Finally.

The Irish beat Bowling Green 82-66 Tuesday night, moving to 5-0 this season. They outscored the Falcons 23-5 to end the game, turning a tense 2-point deficit with 10:55 left into their largest margin of victory this year. They covered the spread (14 points) for the first time in five tries.

Freshman guard JJ Starling led Notre Dame with 23 points. Grad student forward Nate Laszewski had 22. Notre Dame shot 55.4 percent from the field and 35 percent on 3-pointers. Bowling Green (2-3) shot 43.3 percent.

Here are three observations from the game.

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1. Freshmen on display

This was the game where Starling emerged as Notre Dame’s lead guard. With all due respect to grad student guards Trey Wertz, Dane Goodwin, Cormac Ryan and Marcus Hammond (when healthy), Starling has an extra gear and dynamic scoring ability that’s a rung above everyone else.

Notre Dame might not always turn to him to carry its offense. That quartet and Laszewski have plenty to offer themselves. But when the Irish let him take over – as he did Tuesday – he has the off-the-dribble scoring talent and shot-creation to flip a game in minutes.

That’s what he did for the first time in his Irish career Tuesday. When Notre Dame had to quell a Bowling Green run or answer a bucket, Starling raised his hand. He hit a turnaround jumper that only he can take or make to break a 46-46 tie. One possession later, he sparked a runout and Wertz 3 with a steal. His defense forced a front-rim miss that turned into a transition opportunity, which ended with him making a layup for a 53-46 lead.

Starling stopped bad momentum cold when Notre Dame trailed 61-59 with 10:55 to go. He tied the score with a pick-and-roll layup that displayed his acceleration and strength. He put Notre Dame ahead when he made a layup off a crossover dribble in a tight space. The Irish never trailed again. He gave them a cushion when he turned a Goodwin steal into a transition layup and made 2 of 3 free throws when he was fouled shooting a 3-pointer.

“His offensive decisions tonight, there were no bad shots,” head coach Mike Brey said.

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Freshman forward Ven-Allen Lubin also scored a career-high 12 points in 16 minutes. His night began with a moment that could have sent him spiraling. He took a wide-open 3-pointer in the corner and hit the top of the backboard.

He hardly sulked. He made a layup in transition 21 seconds of game time later, set up by running the floor and catching a pass from Starling. He put back a miss on Notre Dame’s next possession. He assisted on Laszewski’s layup one possession later when he passed to him from just beyond the free throw line, a pretty hi-lo delivery.

All told, Lubin and Starling combined for 35 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. They were 16-of-20 from the field.

“They played like old guys tonight,” Brey said. “They saved us.”

JJ Starling went 10 for 11 from the field and dropped 23 points in tonight's win!@NDmbb pic.twitter.com/Dd8lUVGA8g

— ACC Digital Network (@theACCDN) November 23, 2022

2. Defense struggles first, ends strong

On paper, Bowling Green provided a nice path for Notre Dame to pull the wheel around on defense. The Falcons entered play Tuesday ranked 217th in adjusted offensive efficiency, per KenPom. They were 252nd in 2-point percentage and 270th in 3-point percentage.

Instead, Notre Dame’s defense was an antidote to their woes for 30 minutes. Bowling Green scored 40 points and shot 53.3 percent in the first half. They had 24 points in the paint and shot 40 percent on 3-pointers. Nothing Notre Dame tried worked for very long, whether it was icing screens, switching or playing zone.

The Irish didn’t fare much better in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Bowling Green outscored them 21-17 in the first 9:05 to take its 2-point lead.

From there, though, Notre Dame played its best stretch of defense this year. It held the Falcons to 5 points the rest of the way, and 2 of those came on a meaningless layup with 11 seconds left. Bowling Green made a 3-pointer with 8:27 left and didn’t score again until that garbage-time basket.

The Irish stayed in man-to-man defense down the stretch. Cormac Ryan, their best defensive guard, stayed on Bowling Green leading scorer Leon Ayers III’s hip for the final 20 minutes. Ayers was 4-of-11 in the second half.

Notre Dame finally produced an extended stretch of good defense. Now its task is to give it staying power.

“Maybe we can defend for 40 minutes at some point, but at least we defended in the second half,” Brey said.

3. Crisp offense returns

Save for a flat first half Nov. 18 against Lipscomb, Notre Dame put the ball in the basket without too much trouble its first four games. But it did so in a stylistic departure.

The Irish – usually among the national leaders in assist-turnover ratio, turnover rate and assist rate, had just four more assists than giveaways their first four games (45 to 41). It didn’t hinder them from topping 79 points in their first three games. They still shot 39.8 percent on 3-pointers.

Notre Dame’s best version of itself, though, is far better than a 1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio. Tuesday night was that. The Irish had 16 assists on 31 field goals, their first game with an assist rate over 50 percent (it was 54.5 percent last year). They committed just 5 turnovers. Wertz, frequently operating as a point guard once again, had 6 assists and 1 turnover. He is up to 20 assists against 7 turnovers this year.

The forwards can pass too. Laszewski and Lubin combined for 5 assists.