Notre Dame men's basketball grinds out 59-43 win over Jacksonville
There was plenty of good news Tuesday night for Notre Dame in a 59-43 victory over Jacksonville University at Purcell Pavilion. Starting with a newcomer’s best game.
Irish grad transfer guard Marcus Hammond had his coming out party, leading all scorers with a season-high 15 points off the bench.
Notre Dame did what it needed to do after a sluggish first half to break a three-game losing streak. Fan-favorite Irish junior forward Matt Zona scored his first bucket of the season. And perhaps the Irish even showed some defensive discipline in the win, albeit against one of the more offensively challenged teams in the country.
Aesthetically speaking, this Irish win provided little. Notre Dame shot only 25-of-62 overall (40.3 percent) and 7-of-27 three-pointers (25.9 percent). But the Fighting Irish (8-5) used a pretty 9-0 run early in the second half to turn a 36-36 tie into a 45-36 lead that was never seriously threatened by the Dolphins (7-4).
Notre Dame opened by missing its first 12 three-point tries, and went more than five minutes without scoring, helping Jacksonville to an early 14-7 lead, an advantage that held up until the Irish grabbed an uninspiring 21-19 halftime lead.
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Notre Dame did its best work in the second half when it shot 16-of-31 overall (51.6 percent), 5-of-11 from three-point range (45.5 percent), and outscored the Dolphins 38-24 over the final 20 minutes.
After Hammond kept the Irish in the game through the first half with 9 of his 15 points — and 9 of the Irish 21 points — graduate guard Dane Goodwin and freshman guard JJ Starling took over in the second half.
Goodwin scored 7 of his 12 points in the second half while Starling recorded all 11 of his points after the break on 5-of-7 shooting. Grad forward Nate Laszewski added 5 points and a team-best 7 rebounds.
In a slow-paced but quick game, the two teams combined for only 19 total fouls and 10 free throws.
Defensively, Notre Dame did a solid job, holding Jacksonville to only 17-of-49 shooting (34.7 percent) and 4-of-15 three-pointers (26.7 percent), including only 1-of-6 from long range in the second half.
With its non-conference schedule complete, Notre Dame resumes its ACC grind Friday at home against No. 14 Miami (2 p.m. ET).
