Notre Dame Basketball: Irish are eliminated from NIT
By J.P. Scott
Notre Dame basketball lost to Penn State on Saturday, eliminating the Irish from the NIT and ending their season.
It didn’t look good from the start for the Notre Dame basketball team on Saturday. The Irish came out sluggish against Penn State and never fully recovered.
Notre Dame trailed by 11 at the end of the first quarter but did manage to cut the lead to five at halftime. The Irish were on the short end of trading buckets with the Nittany Lions again in the third quarter, as Penn State build up a double-digit lead that they would never give up.
Trailing by 14 to start the fourth quarter, Notre Dame went on a 7-0 run to close the gap to seven points. After that, it was more of the same, as the Irish continued to struggle shooting from the field and behind the arc. Notre Dame shot just 39 percent from the field and 19 percent from 3-point range.
Penn State built up another 14-point lead late in the fourth quarter, and that proved to be too much for head coach Mike Brey’s squad to overcome. The injury to Bonzie Colson’s foot — knocking him out of the game in the second half — didn’t help matters.
On the bright side — before the injury — Colson was turning in yet another solid performance. He finished the game with 16 points, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, an assist and a steal. It wasn’t one of the great performances of his career, but it was shaping up to be another classic Bonzie-effort that we’ve grown to love from him over the years.
The final score: Penn State 73, Notre Dame 63.
Next: Notre Dame Women Advance
This brings the Irish basketball season — one plagued with injuries — to a disappointing end.