Notre Dame Basketball Recap: Notre Dame 83 – Chaminade 56
By Andrew Hall
The Notre Dame basketball team started from the Maui Tournament with a blowout win over Chaminade University of Honolulu.
35 years ago, Chaminade, the host school of the Maui Tournament, defeated No. 1 Virginia in the opening round of the tournament. Chaminade, then a member of the NAIA, pulled off one of the greatest upsets of all-time, 77-72.
Notre Dame avoided another monumental upset in their first game in Hawaii. The Irish defeated the Silverswords, 83-56.
Despite a talent inequality, the Silverswords hung the Fighting Irish for the majority of the game. At the end of first half, Notre Dame led the Division II program by only 9 points. Around the halfway point in the second half, the Irish began to pull away. Freshman D.J. Harvey’s “and-one” pushed the Notre Dame lead to 20 points.
From that point, the Irish would swell the lead to as many 30 points. Notre Dame finished with a 27-point victory. The majority of Notre Dame’s backups and walk-ons were in the game with 5 minutes remaining in the game.
Matt Farrell paced the Irish with a career-high 27 points on 9 of 12 shootings. Behind the arc, Farrell hit 4 of 7 shots. He also added 4 assists.
Player of the year candidate Bonzie Colson scored 23 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Despite a very solid evening, the Notre Dame Senior Power Forward is likely unhappy because he did not collect another double-double.
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Newcomer Small Forward D.J. Harvey added 12 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists in limited action.
Sophomore Guard T.J. Gibbs, who was second on the team in scoring, only notched 7 points. He did add 4 rebounds and 3 assists.
Notre Dame will face the winner of Michigan and LSU. The Wolverines and Tigers played immediately following the game between the Irish and Silverswords. The game tips at 10:30 ET on ESPN on Tuesday. The Irish will also play on Wednesday. Whether it is the championship game or a game for 3rd place.