By: Bradley Stewart
Notre Dame was in the Big East on June 30, 2013. The next day the Fighting Irish officially joined the Atlantic Coast Conference. Their move was announced on September 12, 2012 during a press conference. The Irish 9-4 entering the game, had already played against two ranked teams this season, Ohio State and Iowa. The Buckeyes and Hawkeyes had beaten Notre Dame by 3 and 5 points. Close games? Yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Notre Dame is that good of a basketball team. On Saturday, they proved they were.
In the first half of the game, it was fairly even. The largest lead of the half was Duke up 5, with 14:44 left in the half. The rest of the half the team in the lead had it no larger than 4. The half ended with the Blue Devils up 37-35.
Below: Jabrai Parker and Erik Atkins battle for a loose ball.
It was much difference in the 2nd Half. Andre Dawkins' 3-Pointer with 11:39 left gave Duke a 60-50 lead on the Irish. The game is basically over. Duke, historically, whenever they are up double digits always wins. Will that is historically. Duke has blown leads this season against Kansas, Vermont, and Arizona. All of those games were in November. Duke lost them all, except for the game against Vermont. In December Duke proved to be a good and not overrated team with double-digit wins against two ranked teams, UCLA and Michigan. Duke was hot in December, but this is January. Then Notre Dame went on a 20-4 run in a span of 8:15 to take a 70-64 lead.
Below: Pat Connaughton dunks over Duke's true freshman Jabari Parker.
But with a minute left, after two Quinn Cook free throws Duke was only down 74-73. Lets skip to when there is 9 seconds left. Rodney Hood commits a turnover. Duke, down 77-75 fouls Demetrius Jackson. Jackson nails the two free throws to give Notre Dame a 79-75 lead. The game is over right? Wrong. Quinn Cook of Duke drives but misses. Amile Jefferson gets the rebound and puts it back in with 1 second to spare. But still Duke still has a chance to win. The options were to steal the ball and score, foul and have the Notre Dame player miss one of the two free throws.
Pat Connaughton is throwing the ball inbounds and throws the ball too half court. Tyler Thornton then steals the ball from midair and shoots it from half court, only to fail miserably. You are probably thinking "Oh well, Duke needed a miracle to win anyway.". Wrong.
There was no one behind Tyler Thornton. Had he let the ball sail over his head and roll out of bounds Duke would receive the ball underneath the hoop they were scoring in. Coach K probably has a successful inbound play. They could try and tie with a two or win with a three, as Duke has five guys (Cook, Parker, Sulaimon, Dawkins, and Hood) who can make threes easily if they are open. With that being said Duke was a "jump" away from winning or sending that game into overtime.
Rodney Hood led Duke in points with 27. Cook had 22 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Parker went 3/15 from the field in this game, only scoring 7 points. Parker was taken out because he was under-performing. Amile Jefferson make a big impact of the bench for the Blue Devils scoring 4 points and led both teams with 9 rebounds.
Eric Atikins led the Irish with 19 points. Atkins had a double-double with 19 points and 11 assists. Steve Vasturia hit three, big, threes off the bench. Garrick Sherman scored 14 points and had 8 rebounds. Pat Connaughton would be my vote for player of the game. He had 16 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists.
When you look at the key team stats between Duke and Notre Dame, some major stats jump out. Notre Dame shot 52% from the field, while Duke only shot 41%. Notre Dame out-rebounded the Blue Devils 39-30. This game was not scrappy on 12 turnovers for the entire game. And the reason the Fighting Irish defeated the Blue Devils was that they shot 11% better than Duke.
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