Short-handed Notre Dame stalls in second half, loses to Wake Forest
Notre Dame going about 25 minutes without two of its top five scorers before the roof caved in seems, on the surface, like a minor miracle. In the context of this lost season, though, maybe it shouldn’t be terribly surprising.
The Irish, if nothing else, have staved off the temptation to mentally check out. A mere two wins since New Year’s Day, an in-season coaching change announcement and a heap of close losses have yet to zap the Irish of their pride. The absence of guards JJ Starling (knee soreness) and Marcus Hammond (sprained toe) Saturday at Wake Forest didn’t deter them from giving the Demon Deacons a push for a little more than a half.
But 40 close minutes on the road, let alone a victory, was too much to ask for a team without its fourth- and fifth-leading scorer. Especially for one searching for wins at full strength. Whatever credit is earned for not folding in a wayward season comes with the caveat that the bottom line hasn’t changed.
It didn’t Saturday either.
Notre Dame lost 66-58 at Wake Forest, its eighth straight defeat, and scored just 22 points in the second half. The Irish are 10-19, tying the single-season mark for the most losses in Mike Brey’s 23 seasons. They’re 2-16 in the ACC, the most conference losses in Brey’s tenure. They remain winless in 11 games away from home and lost every February game on the schedule.
The undermanned Irish, though, pushed Wake Forest for longer than anyone on the home sideline or in the Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum stands could have reasonable expected. They led for 9:55 of the first half and made five 3-pointers in the opening 20 minutes. They trailed 41-40 with 18:29 left when freshman forward Ven-Allen Lubin scored in the post.
Then it all unraveled.
The Irish went the next 6:03 without a field goal, missing nine straight shots. Wake Forest’s own 4:24 scoreless stretch was the only reason the game didn’t turn into a laugher while Notre Dame conducted its symphony of clanks. Cormac Ryan’s jumper that ended the drought put the Irish within six points. But it was only a blip. Notre Dame mustered just two field goals in the next 6:38, putting Wake Forest in control the rest of the way. That stretch ended with the Demon Deacons taking a 14-point lead.
“We still were we able to get our fair share of stops, but they got too many stops on us,” associate head coach Anthony Solomon said.
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All told, Notre Dame shot just 32.1 percent in the second half and were 0-for-9 on 3-pointers. The Irish made just one of their last 16 3-point attempts after hitting their first four. They shot 39.6 percent overall and had 9 assists against 11 turnovers.
“Forty minutes is what it’s about,” Solomon said. “We weren’t able to put it together on both ends.”
The lone reliable scorer was Lubin, who led Notre Dame with a career-high 19 points. He added 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 1 steal. He was 9-for-13 from the floor. He made four of Notre Dame’s six baskets in the first 15 minutes of the second half. He reached double figures for the fourth time in the last six games.
Starling and Hammond’s absence caused Brey to break the emergency glass on the fire alarm. Forward Matt Zona tied a season-high with 16 minutes, totaling 2 points and 2 rebounds. Notre Dame was so desperate for guard help that it played Lubin, Zona and forward Nate Laszewski together, with Laszewski as the “three.”
That wasn’t all. Guard Robby Carmody, effectively a mop-up duty body after a series of severe injuries, played 3 minutes of non-garbage time. He had appeared in just four games and five total minutes since Dec. 4, 2019.
