Irish Prevail
January 09, 2007 09:38 PM | General
January 8, 2007
BOX SCORE
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Russell Carter scored 19 points and Colin Falls added 14 to lead Notre Dame to a 61-58 victory over No. 21 West Virginia Tuesday night at the Joyce Center in Notre Dame, Ind.
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| West Virginia forward Joe Alexander, left, attempts to drive around Notre Dame guard Russell Carter during first half action in a basketball game Tuesday Jan. 9, 2007 in South Bend, Ind.
AP photo |
Notre Dame (14-2, 2-1) nearly blew a 10-point lead with five minutes remaining. West Virginia had a chance to take the lead with 1:32 left trailing by two, 55-53. But Alex Ruoff airballed a 3 from the corner and Da’Sean Butler had the ball stolen by Tory Jackson trying to follow up Ruoff’s miss.
Luke Harangody made a pair of free throws with 1:12 left to put the Irish up four, and a Carter drive to the basket with 40 seconds left made it 59-53, Irish.
Butler kept West Virginia alive by putting back Rob Summers’ second missed free throw to make it 59-55, but Rob Kurz answered on the other end with a pair of free throws with 20 seconds remaining.
Following a WVU timeout with 7.7 seconds left, Frank Young got free in the corner for a fall-away 3 to make it a one possession game, 61-58. Kurz missed the front end of a one-and-one with 3.9 seconds on the clock and the Mountaineers had another chance to tie it, but Young could not get a shot off racing down the near side of the court.
“Da’Sean got a big rebound and we didn’t finish off that one and then we had a couple of open looks at the end that looked like great shots that didn’t go down,” said West Virginia coach John Beilein. “Maybe (if we make those) we win the game and we don’t learn as much about ourselves.”
West Virginia (13-2, 3-1) was able to climb out of a big hole it dug itself in a first half in which the Mountaineers converted just nine field goals and scored 21 points. A 17-2 Notre Dame run between halves built the Irish lead to 14 points at 35-21 following a Kurz dunk. That was Notre Dame’s biggest lead of the game.
“That first half was our worst half of basketball this season without question,” said Beilein. “We were indecisive and just not ourselves. When I went in to talk to them at halftime I told them that I didn’t know where to start? I didn’t have any idea because we were just playing so out of character.”
The Irish shot 53.5 percent for the game, hitting 23 of 43 field goal attempts. Carter was 8 of 17 – mostly on dunks and drives to the basket – and Falls finished 5 of 8 overall including 4 of 7 from 3-point range.
Harangody came off the bench to contribute 11 points while Kurz pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
“We played the same type of team that did worse things to Alabama, Louisville and some pretty good teams that have come in here so we’ll just have to take it and go back to school and learn,” Beilein said.
Ruoff led West Virginia with 14 points on 6 of 12 shooting. Young added 13 on four 3s and a free throw. Young, Darris Nichols and Joe Alexander combined to make just 11 of 35 from the field for 31.4 percent.
Butler pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds. The Mountaineers won the rebounding battle against Notre Dame, 33-30, but made just 2 of 7 from the free throw line. Four of those five misses would have made up the difference.
“We didn’t win the foul shooting battle but we did take the ball to the hoop better in the second half,” Beilein said.
West Virginia had its season-high eight-game winning streak snapped and has now lost eight in a row at the Joyce Center dating back to 1996. Coach Mike Brey is 11-1 in sevens seasons at Notre Dame against the Mountaineers.
“I’m very proud of our guys for the way they fought back in the second half,” said Beilein.
West Virginia remains on the road to face Marquette Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee. That game will tip at noon and will be televised by ESPN.
