Notre Dame Basketball: Durham powers Irish past Illini

Notre Dame basketball survived a late push from Illinois thanks to the play of Juwan Durham.

For most of the game, things weren’t pretty — it was a dogfight for Notre Dame basketball. It was all you could ask for out of two extremely young teams with a will to win.

Illinois has already fell victim to a difficult schedule, making their record seem worse than it actually is. Notre Dame, on the other hand, will have their loss to Radford hanging over their heads for the rest of the season.

There have been growing pains for these two teams, and Tuesday night was no exception.

Illinois might be young but they’re pesky on defense. For the majority of the first half, that was the biggest issue for Notre Dame.

The Irish shot only 37 percent from the field and 23 percent from beyond the arc in the first half. But the score remained close due to Illinois turnovers. With a handful of those turnovers being unforced, Illinois youth stood out.

The theme so far for this Notre Dame season has been adversity and how the Irish handled it.

When John Mooney acquired his fourth foul, head coach Mike Brey went small. With issues of the current matchups looming in the horizon, Juwan Durham was called on.

The transfer instantly clicked.

No longer was defending the paint an issue for the Irish. The offensive game was elevated now with more freedom from the guards.

Durham continued his strong play as he netted a free throw to cap off a three-point play in the midst of a 17-2 run in favor of the Irish. The guards DJ Harvey and Temple Gibbs found their games, both putting together 19-point performances.

But then, it was hard to figure out; Notre Dame either became too comfortable, fatigued or scared.

Illinois started getting pesky again by either pressing or falling back into a trap at half court. The Irish couldn’t figure it out and couldn’t find the bottom of the net in return.

As Illinois fought their way back and made it a game once again, Brey needed someone to make a play. Durham was his man.

Two blocks on one end and a dunk on the other gave the Irish some breathing room. With momentum on their side, Trent Frazier pulled up for the game-winning shot. From the bottom of the rim and back out, Notre Dame saw how close they were to letting this one slip away.

Instead, the Irish escaped with a 76-74 win and improved to 6-1 on the season behind Durham’s ten points and five blocks in 17 quality minutes of play.