ATLANTA – It was a three-point game with just under eight minutes remaining in the game, bu the Notre Dame men’s basketball team (7-4) couldn’t ride its momentum to garner the lead and seize the win in an Atlanta showdown with Georgia (8-3). The Bulldogs closed on a 19-7 scoring spree to take it 77-62.
Nate Laszewski did what he could on both ends of the floor, registering his second straight 20-point performance and fourth of the season. He shot 7-of-10 from the floor, with a 4-of-7 mark from deep – which tied his season high. On the defensive end, Laszewski took three charges.
Cormac Ryan followed right behind with 15 points and a season-high tying six rebounds. Ryan was 3-for-5 from three, as he is now 18-of-26 from deep over the last five games.
Freshman JJ Starling recorded his third straight game in double figures with 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
As a team, the Irish knocked down 11-of-23 from beyond the arc (48%) and were 23-of-54 overall (43%). Georgia won the rebound battle 35-25 and forced a season-high 15 Irish turnovers. The Bulldogs were 27-of-54 (50%) from the floor and scored 40 points in the paint.
How It Happened
Lazewski and Ran connected on back-to-back three-pointers to give the Irish a 13-7 lead at the first media timeout at 14:16. Later, Georgia claimed its first lead of the game at 19-18 after a 6-0 run, but Wertz stymied the rally with and-one on the other end, thus a 21-19 ND lead.
From 7:31-4:04, the Irish made three field goals – all three-pointers, and from three different Irish – Laszewski, Ryan and Wertz.
With the Irish up at that point 30-26, the Bulldogs turned the tide with a swift 8-0 run in 49 seconds, which led to them ending the half on a 15-6 scoring spree. Therefore, Georgia led Notre Dame, 41-36, at the break.
The theme for a majority of the first half was Notre Dame three’s vs Georgia in the paint. Seven of ND’s first 11 made shots came from beyond the arc (finished 7-of-13 at the half), while UGA at one point had 18 of its 29 points in the paint (finished with 24).
Ryan was in double figures at the midway point with 10 points on a perfect 4-for-4 from the field. Five different Irish contributed to the seven three’s. The Irish shot 52 percent from the floor to the Bulldogs’ 50 percent.
Laszewski got into double figures right away in the second half with back-to-back dunks, but then the Irish suffered from a 1-of-10 shooting stretch from the field. Ryan ended the drought with a three to shorten the gap to 52-45 at 12:35.
Right when the defense needed it the most, they got a kill and converted each time on the offensive end with back-to-back jumpers from Starling and a big three from Laszewski. As a result, the Irish cut it to one possession, down 58-55, with 7:43 remaining.
However, the Georgia response was a rally-killing 11-0 run over the next three minutes to push their lead to 69-55, which they then rode to the 77-62 final.
Up Next
With the fall semester wrapped, the Irish will stay out on the road and practice in Tallahassee for the next couple of days to get ready for an ACC matchup with Florida State on Wednesday, Dec. 21. Tip-off for that contest is scheduled for 8:30 pm ET on ACC Network.
— ND –