Observations: Notre Dame collapses in 70-63 loss at Boston College
Another game, another concerning method by which Notre Dame lost. There have been 40-minute offensive ruts. There have been turnovers fests. Games with too many defensive leaks and days where the Irish just didn’t have enough.
The latest addition to the bingo card? A straight-up collapse.
The Irish fell to Boston College on the road 70-63 Tuesday despite leading for 37:19 of game time. They allowed the Eagles to close the game on a 17-4 run that spanned the final 4:07. It sent them to 8-7 overall and 0-4 in the ACC. They’re 1-5 in the last six games.
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“Heartbreaking, because we had ourselves in position,” head coach Mike Brey said. “But that’s kind of us. We couldn’t finish. We’re a little fragile finishing. We’ll keep working with them and try to get them confident.”
Guards JJ Starling and Dane Goodwin led Notre Dame with 16 points each. The Irish shot 40 percent overall, but just 31 percent in the second half. Boston College (8-7, 2-2) shot 51.9 percent.
Here are some observations from the game.
Offense dries up late
Turnovers weren’t the bugaboo this time, as they were in a home loss to Miami Dec. 30 or a road defeat at Florida State Dec. 21. Rather, Notre Dame just didn’t make enough shots or find enough clean looks in the final minutes.
The Irish missed seven straight shots before a putback from guard Cormac Ryan with 4.2 seconds left, fueling a 12-2 Boston College run to end the game. They had one field goal between Ryan’s 3-pointer with 4:26 left and his putback. Starling missed a pair of free throws and had a layup blocked. The Irish clanged two 3-pointers in the final minute and were 5-of-16 from deep in the second half.
Perhaps the most critical miss was guard Marcus Hammond misfiring on a stepback jumper with 1:14 left. Notre Dame got the look it wanted in that moment: Hammond with Boston College 7-foot forward Quinten Post switched onto him. Earlier, Starling and Goodwin attacked him for layups when he switched onto them. Hammond, though, chose the jumper and missed.
Goodwin’s last point came with 13:21 left.
Paint points a problem again
One look at the stats will show how Boston College wants to score: inside the arc. The Eagles came into the game shooting just 27 percent on 3-pointers, which ranked 352nd out of 363 Division I teams. They’re not a perimeter threat.
Notre Dame knew that and spent the first half in zone defense, usually a 2-3. The Eagles weren’t likely to force the Irish out of it by making 3s. Notre Dame could live with giving shooters space and devoting more help on drives and in the paint. The same was true in the second half, when it largely played man.
Didn’t matter.
Boston College scored 38 of its 70 points in the paint and hit 62 percent of its shots inside the arc. It wasn’t because the Eagles tried to defy the scouting report either. They attempted just 12 3-pointers and made two.
The culprit was, once again, containing the ball on the perimeter. Eagles guard Mason Madsen drove right past Goodwin on a jumper to put his team up 64-61. Everyone was guilty of not staying in front, though. Boston College often isolated Post (10 points) wing Prince Aligbe (15 points) or guard Jaeden Zackery (18) in the high post to attack the gaps in the zone, for a layup if single covered or for a dump-off assist at the rim if they drew help.
Zackery needled the Irish off the dribble in the second half too, scoring 14 points in the final 20 minutes. Aligbe had 2 offensive rebounds and drew 2 fouls in the second half.
Lubin exits, Zona in
Notre Dame lost a piece from its seven-man rotation when freshman forward Ven-Allen Lubin left in the first half with an ankle injury. He did not return. Brey’s response was not to tighten the rotation to six, but rather to give junior forward Matt Zona some minutes.
Zona had previously been behind freshman Dom Campbell, but got the nod over him Tuesday. All told, he had 2 points and 1 rebound in 9 minutes.
“Ven going down, I’m disappointed in that,” Brey said. “I thought that play was a little overly physical, quite frankly. I don’t know how long he will be out.”
Without him, Notre Dame is without its best rim protector. Lubin had a team-high 14 blocks entering the game and would have been particularly useful with how much help defense Notre Dame played against Boston College.
The Irish’s next game is the last one anybody wants to play with a depleted frontcourt. Saturday’s opponent, North Carolina, has reigning first-team All-ACC forward Armando Bacot, who is averaging 18.5 points and 11.2 rebounds per game.
