DURHAM, N.C. – A team searching for a signature road win and a team that hasn’t lost at home this season – Notre Dame men’s basketball (10-16, 2-13) took the Duke Blue Devils (18-8, 9-6) to the wire, but came up just short 68-64.
Dane Goodwin scored a season high 25 points and was a man on absolute fire in the second half, recording a stretch in which he scored 17 straight points. The Irish, who were down 10 with eight minutes left, rallied to make it a one-point game, down 62-63 with 36 seconds remaining. However, Duke’s Mark Mitchell (shooting .361 from three on the year) hit a corner three with 12 seconds on the clock.
The Irish outscored the Blue Devils 41-37 in the second half, in which 19 of those points belonged to Goodwin. In addition, freshman Ven-Allen Lubin, making his third consecutive start, notched his third straight game in double figures with 10 points.
How It Happened
Duke started 3-for-3 from the field to jump out to a 6-2 advantage, but Ryan and Hammond got the offense churning with seven consecutive points to push the Irish ahead for their first lead at 9-6.
Hammond ultimately started 3-for-4 from the field as his six quick points had the Irish up 15-13 in a very back-and-forth game. In fact, by 9:38 on the clock, there were already three ties and six lead changes in the game.
However, the Blue Devils turned the tide with a 7-0 scoring run that they extended into a 12-2 scoring spree over a seven-minute span. The Irish, who started the game 7-for-13 from the field, finished the half 3-for-15. Freshmen Ven-Allen Lubin and JJ Starling were two of those baskets, limiting the damage to down 31-23 at the half.
Hammond and Goodwin each led with six points at halftime while Duke’s Kyle Filipowski was the lone player in double figures with 10. The Irish uncharacteristically had just one three.
Filipowski scored the first two baskets of the second half, pushing the Blue Devil lead to double digits at 35-23, prompting a Coach Brey timeout. Goodwin scored out of the timeout and was later followed by a three from Laszewski – but the latter picked up his fourth foul right at the 16:00 media. With Duke’s Ryan Young’s bucket at 15:37, the home squad was up 42-28.
Next, the Irish began to muster some momentum, a 12-2 scoring stretch in fact, cutting the deficit to 40-44 at 12:28. In fact, Duke was held to without a field goal from 15:37 to 10:29.
Yet, as soon as the Blue Devils got one in, they parlayed that into a quick 6-0 run in a minute, and in a blink of an eye, the Irish were down double digits again at 40-50 with 9:26 remaining.
Next, Dane Goodwin single-handedly took over the game for the Irish and recorded one of the best individual stretches all season. The graduate guard scored 17 straight points from 12:35-4:29, going toe-to-toe with Duke and cutting the deficit to 52-56.
Later down eight, the Irish surged again with back-to-back three-pointers from Ryan and Starling, making it 60-62 with 1:11 on the clock.
Out of a Duke timeout, Roach got fouled and went to the line where he converted 1-of-2. Starling then drove into the paint and made the layup, making it a one-point game at 62-63.
Down on the other end, Duke’s Mitchell, who had one field goal at that point in the game, hit a corner three with 12.0 seconds left. Down 66-62 now, Notre Dame attacked the basket quickly and got a put-back from Lubin. Off the Duke in-bounds, Ryan thought he had a tie-up jumpball but the referees ruled it a foul instead, sending Duke to the line where they put the game away.
Up Next
Notre Dame will remain on the road and will look to topple a top-10 ranked foe. The Irish travel to Charlottesville Saturday to clash with No. 7/6 Virginia at Noon ET on ESPN2.
— ND –