Big East Sports Blog

He may be built like a tight end, but the hardwood suits Luke Harangody just fine. Harangody had a monster game against West Virginia, scoring 29 points and grabbing 16 rebounds as Notre Dame defeated West Virginia 69-56 on Thursday night.

Notre Dame (11-2, 1-0)  won their ninth game in a row and 29th straight at home, holding West Virginia to their worst shooting night of the year, coupled with their lowest point total of the year.  The Mountaineers were held to just 32 percent shooting in the game.  They were 11-of-31 from the field in the first half (35.5 percent). 

The Irish trailed 14-11 early in the first half, but a ferocious 22-8 run put them up 33-22, and took a 37-28 lead into halftime.  Harangody, along with Ryan Ayers and Zach Hillesland, combined for 16 of the 22 points during their run.  Harangody was on fire in the first half connecting on his first seven shots, finishing the first half 7-of-8 from the field.  Harangody finished the game 11-of-16.

Alex Ruoff led West Virginia with 18 points and was the sole player in double figures for Bob Huggins.  While their 32 percent overall field goal percent may not have been pretty, it was their 3-point shooting that was hideous for the Mountaineers.  They didn’t see many three’s that they didn’t like, and they also didn’t connect on many of them either.  Overall, West Virginia shot a putrid 5-of-25 from beyond the arc, good for 20 percent shooting.  They were 3-of-13 in the first half and 2-of-12 in the second half.

While Notre Dame is on a roll, West Virginia has struggled the past two games with their shooting and interior defense.  In their overtime loss to Oklahoma, Blake Griffin and Longar Longar beat up West Virginia inside, combining for 40 points and 20 rebounds (16 rebounds by Griffin). Tonight it was Harangody that killed West Virginia with 29 points and 16 rebounds.  Their 3-point shooting has been dreadful in their past two losses, shooting 10-of-49 from beyond the arc.  West Virginia was also outrebounded again in the loss to Notre Dame as well.  It’s a pretty simple philosophy in basketball at any level; if you don’t shoot well and you don’t win the rebounding battle, you’re not going to win.  An ideal the Mountaineers have painfully learned the last two outings.

The Mountaineers are now 10-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play.  They’ve dropped their last two games after having won their previous eight in a row.  West Virginia will look to avoid their third straight loss this Sunday afternoon when they host No. 11 Marquette at 2 p.m.  For the Fighting Irish, they’ll put their nine-game win streak and 29 straight home victories on the line when they host Connecticut at 9 p.m.

Being off for nearly two weeks didn’t cool off the Fighting Irish, as Notre Dame won their sixth straight, beating San Francisco 84-76 on Saturday afternoon. The Irish now improve to 8-2 and haven’t lost since Nov. 19th.

Early in the game, you wouldn’t have been able to detect that the Irish were coming off a long layoff, building a 23-point lead at one point in the first half.  The Irish too a 43-29 lead into halftime, but a lot of credit goes to the Dons who simply refused to go away.  Five times in the second half the Dons cut an Irish lead to five points.

Luke Harangody scored 23 points for Notre Dame, including 16 in the second half after struggling from the field in the first half, only going 2-for-7.  That was a common theme between the two teams, players rebounding for monster second halves after lackluster firsts.

Manny Quezada scored 25 for the Dons, leading all scorers in the game.  Quezada torched the Irish defense in the second half for a 21-point outburst.  He cut the lead to five one final time with 11.5 seconds to play, however, that would be as close as the Dons would get.

Hats off to San Francisco, chipping away methodically at the Irish lead after trailing by as much as 23 in the first half.  It looked as if this one was going to be a laugher early, but the Dons refused to quit and refused to allow the Irish to run away with it.

Dior Lowhorn chipped in with 20 points for the Dons and Danny Cavis added 13, 10 coming in the second half.  The Dons drastically improved their shooting in the second half, shooting 50 percent from the field after shooting only 36.7 percent in the first half.  They were also able to penetrate and get inside the interior defense of the Irish, out-scoring Notre Dame 28-18 in the paint during the second half.

The Irish had four players score in double figures, helping Notre Dame remain unbeaten at home (6-0) and 26th straight game without a loss at the Joyce Center.  The Irish will be off for a week and will host Brown University next Saturday, Dec. 29th at 7 p.m.