I knew it would happen. I had a bad feeling when I woke up this morning about the front end of this east coast Big East weekend wrap-around road trip for the Fighting Irish and I should have put my money where my thoughts were. Notre Dame's nine-game winning streak came to a hault on Saturday at New York's Madison Square Garden to the St. John's Red Storm, 61-58.
Notre Dame shot poorly throughout the game and it honestly haunted them and kept the Irish from fully overtaking the Red Storm in the second half. ND reverted to their old style of basketball, living and dying by the three, where they were 4-of-31 (13%) in Saturday's game at Madison Square Garden. St. John's, however, was a little more picky when it came to their three-point shot selection (3-for-11), but still only shot 27% from outside the arc.
The homestanding Red Storm outrebounded Notre Dame 34-29 and capitalized when it needed to down the stretch to keep the Irish from taking the lead and extending their winning streak to ten games. If Notre Dame would have been able to keep up with St. John's in transition and stop them on fast breaks, it could have been the difference and a factor that may have helped Mike Brey's team get a huge road win at MSG. Instead, SJU had 13 fast break points to Notre Dame's 4, an obvious difference in the game's outcome.
A group of five freshmen start and lead the way for St. John's. It's something that's unheard of in college basketball or any sport, for that matter. Moe Harkless (18 points, 9 rebounds), D'Angelo Harrison (15 points), Amir Garrett (11 points), God'sgift Achuiwa (5 points, 6 rebounds, and yes, that's his real first name!) and Sir'Dominic Pointer (4 points, 8 rebounds) are five of the six that contribute to the Red Storm on a normal basis. They don't have much depth at all, one bench player saw the floor today. The win moves them to 13-16 (6-10 Big East) and they also have good program wins over Cincinnati and West Virginia.
Notre Dame was led by both Scott Martin and Jack Cooley, who dropped in 18 points a piece. The two also combined for 17 of the Irish's 29 rebounds and also 16-of-24 from the floor between them. Unfortunately, they didn't received enough help from their teammates to make a difference in their bid for a comeback win. Pat Connaughton, Alex Dragicevich, Eric Atkins, Jerian Grant and Tom Knight produced the other 22 Notre Dame points. The Irish only turned the ball over 7 times, compared to 16 turnover for St. John's. Notre Dame also seemed a little tenative on the offensive end as well. They were only 4-of-7 from the charity stripe, while St. John's was 14-21 from the foul line.
This game was hopefully a wakeup call for Brey and the Irish. They will play Monday at #11 Georgetown (21-6, 11-5 Big East) at 7 p.m. Georgetown might be ranked eleventh, but they are one of the more overrated teams this season in college basketball, to be honest, they usually are. Senior Night for Notre Dame is next Friday vs. Providence (14-15, 3-13 Big East). Those games are a great way to tune up for the upcoming Big East Tournament that will be back at Madison Square Garden.
The Irish (20-9, 12-4 Big East) have themselves in a great spot. They were picked to be 9th in the Big East this year and were pretty much considered a losing team when they lost sharp-shooting Tim Abromaitis in the sixth game of the year. They've proved critics wrong and will continue to do so, as long as the media keeps stacking the deck against them and making them the odds-on underdog.
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