Red-hot shooting lifts Wake Forest to an 81-64 win over Notre Dame

On3 imageby:Todd Burlage02/04/23

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Notre Dame has forever lived by the three-pointer and died by the three-pointer under head coach Mike Brey

On Saturday in a tough 81-64 loss to Wake Forest, it was a disappointing showcase of the latter for the Irish inside Purcell Pavilion.

Notre Dame missed its first 11 three-pointers of the game and didn’t make its first until more than six minutes into the second half. It shot only 4 of 21 (19 percent) overall from long range.

“We’re going to have to make 10 threes against any ACC team to have a chance,” Brey said afterward. “Four ain’t gonna cut it.”

Meanwhile, Wake Forest went an impressive 14 of 30 (46.7 percent) from three-point range for the game. That mark included 6 of 7 from long range to start the second half during the Deacons game-deciding 20-8 run that pushed its 27-26 halftime lead to a comfortable 47-34 advantage.

“Some of the threes they made in the second half, those were back breakers,” Brey said. “But I don’t think we were great defensively and we couldn’t score enough.”

The three-point shooting disparity was the difference and the top storyline of the game after Wake Forest (15-9, 7-6) outscored Notre Dame (10-13, 2-10) 42-12 from the three-point line. 

Junior Deacons forward Damari Monsanto led all scorers with his career high 28 points, including lights-out 8-of-13 three-point shooting.

For Notre Dame, it got good work from grad forward Nate Laszewski, who led the Irish with 18 points and added seven rebounds.

Marcus Hammond (10) and Cormac Ryan (12) rounded out the three Irish double-digit scorers. But those two graduate guards combined to shoot only 9 of 25 from the field and 1 of 6 from three-point range. 

Those three Irish were about it from a Notre Dame offense that shot just 27 of 71 (38 percent) for the game. 

The third Irish graduate guard, Dane Goodwin, struggled mightily, scoring six points on 2-of-12 shooting. 

No Irish player shot better than 50 percent in the game. 

A quick start spoiled

Relying on lock-down defense early on, Notre Dame looked to take control of this one during the first 10 minutes of the game.  

At one point in the first half, the Demon Deacons during an eight-minute span committed eight turnovers and didn’t score a point. 

Meanwhile, Notre Dame during that same stretch made six of seven shots to build a 13-0 run and a 16-4 lead.  

Wake didn’t panic, and methodically countered with an extended 23-10 run to close the first half that actually gave the Deacons a 27-26 lead at the break, despite committing 11 turnovers in the first 20 minutes.

Notre Dame freshman forward Van-Allen Lubin missed his second straight game with an injured ankle and Brey indicated in the post-game that junior forward Matt Zona will become a rotation regular the rest of this season.

Zona played a season-high 16 minutes and scored a career high 4 points with 4 rebounds. 

Up next: Notre Dame returns to action Wednesday when it travels to Atlanta to play Georgia Tech. 

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