Surprisingly, the ND college basketball team suffered a loss before the ND college football team this season.
No. 20 Notre Dame just couldn’t score in the final minutes of regulation and overtime and the Fighting Irish men’s basketball team lost 79-70 to Saint Joseph’s on Friday night in the semifinals of the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at Barclays Center.
“What an unbelievable November game,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said.
“We’re disappointed because we were up eight but they got second shots but what hurt us when we had control is that we had some open looks but couldn’t hit them. I’m disappointed with our effort against theirfront line which is a very good one.”
The Irish led 66-58 with 4 minutes to play on a 3-pointer by Eric Atkins. That was it for regulation as the Hawks closed with an 8-0 run to force the overtime. The extra 5 minutes turned into more of the same as the Hawks scored the first five points and went on to outscore the Irish 13-4 in the extra session.
“We had good looks but we just couldn’t knock them down in a timely manner at the end of the game,” said Atkins who came to the post game news conference with ice bags on the back of each leg because of cramps.
“They did a great job defending us the whole game.” Jack Cooley had 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Fighting Irish (2-1). Scott Martin had 13 points for Notre Dame while Atkins had 12 points and 10 assists.
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