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Notre Dame Basketball: Irish Put on Offensive Clinic vs. Jacksonville

By Chase Eyrich

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 04: Head coach Mike Brey of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish directs his players during the second half of the game against Oklahoma Sooners at Madison Square Garden on December 04, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 04: Head coach Mike Brey of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish directs his players during the second half of the game against Oklahoma Sooners at Madison Square Garden on December 04, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /
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With the third game in less than a full week, Notre Dame basketball showed zero fatigue.

The Notre Dame basketball team is young, but they carry a short memory. Just two days ago, the Irish couldn’t buy a bucket in the first half against Binghamton. Only 25-points in 20-minutes of play ended up being enough for the Irish to retain the lead they had at halftime, but it wasn’t comfortable.

On Thursday night, the struggles were forgotten.

The Irish replaced the lid on the rim with a funnel and watched their shots continue to drop in to the tune of a 100-74 victory.

While it took the first 20-minutes for Notre Dame to score 25-points on Tuesday, only eight were needed for them to rack up 26 against Jacksonville.

The quick start that never died down had a lot to do with the freedom of the Irish guards. D.J. Harvey, Temple Gibbs and surprisingly Dane Goodwin all had big nights and were able to find great shots.

With the ACL tear that has sidelined Rex Pflueger for the season, Head Coach Mike Brey is reluctantly in a position he is accustomed too. One of the biggest problems early on was finding the right rotation. With Pflueger and Robby Carmody both out of the season, Brey’s rotation is being forced back to his normal smaller size.

While Brey is accustomed to a smaller rotation, everything else about this season is a far cry from his comfort zone.

As the lineup gets younger, so does the experience in the program. Brey went big in his starting lineup with both John Mooney and transfer Juwan Durham – who made his first start.

Durham didn’t get an opportunity to replicate the numbers he had in his double-double performance Tuesday night, but the bigger lineup was a huge reason for the quick start and spacing that set the tone for the night.

The unselfish Irish ended the night with 24 team assists thanks to that spacing. The assists piled up, as Notre Dame shot 60 percent for the night and 56 percent from beyond the arc.

With the high shooting percentages and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.18), Notre Dame had five players with double-digit points — three of them with 18 or more. DJ Harvey and Goodwin recorded team bests with 19-points.

dark. Next. Notre Dame Basketball: Irish Brush off Poor First Half to Defeat Binghamton

Now the Irish will take their minds off basketball for nine days of rest before the last non-conference game of the season against Coppin State.