Observations: Notre Dame controls Southern Indiana in 82-70 win

Notre Dame is 3-0 for the first time in six seasons. And after two unexpectedly close wins, it played a game where it had some breathing room down the stretch.

The Irish beat Southern Indiana 82-70 Wednesday night and led wire-to-wire. Guard Trey Wertz scored a team-high 20 points and shot 6-of-12 from the field. Forward Nate Laszewski had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Five players were in double figures.

“We put it together a little better on both ends of the floor tonight than the previous two, defensively especially,” head coach Mike Brey said.

Notre Dame shot 47.2 percent overall and 34.6 percent on 3-pointers. The Irish went 23-of-28 from the foul line.

Here are three observations from the game.

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Another strong outing from Trey Wertz

Brey challenged Wertz to turn his pinch-hit assignment into a full-time role. Wertz began the season in the starting lineup in place of fellow fifth-year guard Marcus Hammond, who will miss the first few games due to an MCL sprain.

His three-game audition has been strong, especially on offense.

Wertz looks more confident when attacking off the dribble and finishing at the rim than the prior two seasons. Short-range misses where he seemed to get skittish when expecting contact haven’t been a theme so far. He went right into a help defender and drew a foul on one second-half possession. He attempted 6 free throws, matching his total from the last 25 games of last season.

When Notre Dame found itself in a tighter-than-desired game in the second half, Wertz pulled the Irish out of it. His layup with 11:33 left snapped a field goal drought of more than six minutes. About a minute later, he came over in help defense on a dive to the basket, deflected a pass for a steal and hit a 3-pointer to push Notre Dame’s lead to 16 points with 9:55 left.

Later, he hit two free throws and made a mid-range jumper, each shot pushing the Irish ahead by 13. The latter came with 6:38 left.

There’s another part of the equation in Wertz staying in the lineup, though. Wertz’s defense has been spotty through three games, and he doesn’t project as a plus on that end. If Hammond is markedly better there upon returning, it might be hard to for Notre Dame to keep him out of the lineup given the defensive issues that have arisen. But Wertz has given Notre Dame the shooting, off-the-dribble scoring and playmaking it hoped to get from Hammond at this stage.

Wertz is averaging 17.7 points through three games.

already 🖐 threes here in the first half — two from @_TDub3

𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗿𝗲 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗲 33 | 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗮𝗻𝗮 21 | under 4 in the first

📺 | @accnetwork pic.twitter.com/L1uPRCWrDn

— Notre Dame Men's Basketball (@NDmbb) November 17, 2022

Defense stabilizes, somewhat

On paper, a Division I newbie presented a nice path for Notre Dame to find some confidence on defense. Southern Indiana, though, made 15 three-pointers in a loss at Missouri and beat Southern Illinois by 18 points in its first two games. They have a roster filled with Division I transfers. The Irish were on alert.

In the end, the Screaming Eagles were a mild threat. Notre Dame held them to 41.3 percent shooting, including 34.4 in the first half. It was enough to build a 17-point halftime lead and an 18-point advantage before the final minutes of mop-up duty sliced it to 12.

“When you can string together stops and the way we’re scoring right now on offense, you can build leads like that,” Wertz said. “We were able to string together multiple stops at a time.”

Notre Dame didn’t need to flip to zone defense because it couldn’t guard in man, unlike the first two games. Ball-screen defense lapses, though, were still intermittent. The Irish’s ability to stay in front of the ball in man was hit-and-miss in the second half, often leading to help defense that left Southern Indiana forwards open at the basket for easy layups.

All told, it was a start. But not a game where everything was fixed or where Notre Dame wants to be.

Nate Laszewski continues to emerge

Maybe Laszewski’s lack of scoring production and shots at times last year was simply because touches were harder to come by. Guard Blake Wesley, guard Prentiss Hubb and forward Paul Atkinson Jr. were first, third and fourth in field goals attempted last year, leaving Laszewski to mainly operate as a catch-and-shoot threat, roller and straight-line driver. Laszewski averaged 1.2 more minutes per game than Atkinson, but took 88 fewer shots.

Part of Brey convincing him to come back for a “super senior” year was reminding him of the chances that trio’s exit would create for him. Laszewski has wasted no time gobbling up the available shots. He is averaging 9.9 field goal attempts through three games, leading to three double-figure outings. He is averaging 20 points per game and shooting 62 percent.

Laszewski has also taken 23 free throws this season, almost half his total from last year (47). He has opened with three straight double-doubles and is averaging 10.3 rebounds per game.