Villanova Hands Notre Dame A Big Loss

Yesterday’s bog discussed the importance of the Fighting Irish to shut down ‘Nova’s Scottie Reynolds. Well, Reynolds was a big thorn for the Fighting Irish. Scottie Reynolds scored 23 points, Dante Cunningham added 18 and eight rebounds to lead the Wildcats (24-6, 12-5) and Shane Clark added 13 points.  Reynolds made all four 3-pointers he took in the second half, finishing 6-of-7. With the Fighting Irish up by four points, the Wildcats took control with runs of 10-2 and 16-1 in the second half to win 77-60 on Monday night and keep alive their hopes of getting a double bye in the first round of the Big East tournament.  The Wildcats held Notre Dame to 36 percent shooting in the second half, holding the Irish without a field goal for nearly seven minutes. Talk about big defense!

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Ryan Ayers led the Irish with 25 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 7-of-10 from 3-point range. Luke Harangody added 18 points and seven rebounds. But the Fighting Irish couldn’t pull a victory. The loss ensures the Irish (16-13, 7-10) will finish with a losing league record and will likely need to win the Big East tournament to earn a third straight NCAA tournament berth.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 3, 2009 - Post a comment

Notre Dame Takes On Villanova

Tonight’s match-up features (10) Villanova (23-6) at Notre Dame (16-12). The Fighting Irish hung in with second ranked-Connecticut for 40 minutes in Storrs on Saturday, but the Huskies won that contest 72-65. Does this mean Notre Dame is out of the NCAA tournament? Not at all. A victory against the Huskies would of propelled them in the polls, but did not eliminate them from the tournament.

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So what will Notre Dame have to do to secure a victory against the Wildcats? They’re going to need more from Luke Harangody than what he’s given them lately. The Big East’s leading scorer at 23.6 points per game, Harangody averaged 17.3 points on just 36.5 percent shooting in his last three games. Guard Kyle McAlarney will also have to flex some offensive power to defeat Villanova. Harangody and McAlarney came up big in Notre Dame’s most recent meeting with Villanova. Harangody had 25 points and a game-high 10 rebounds and McAlarney had 30 points in a 90-80 win in Philadelphia last season. On defense, the Fighting Irish must shut down Scottie Reynolds. ‘Nova’s junior guard knows how to light up the score board. Villanova is 9-0 when Reynolds scores 18 points or more and 10-1 when he shoots above 40.0 percent. Reynolds has averaged 19.7 points in three career games against Notre Dame.

Permalink - Posted in General on March 2, 2009 - Post a comment


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