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Notre Dame Basketball: Irish Fall to Syracuse at Home

By Mychal Hunter

SOUTH BEND, IN - JANUARY 05: Tyus Battle #25 of the Syracuse Orange grabs a rebound against Dane Goodwin #23 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second half of the game at Purcell Pavilion on January 5, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Syracuse won 72-62. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - JANUARY 05: Tyus Battle #25 of the Syracuse Orange grabs a rebound against Dane Goodwin #23 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second half of the game at Purcell Pavilion on January 5, 2019 in South Bend, Indiana. Syracuse won 72-62. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Notre Dame basketball falls to 0-2 in ACC play, losing to Syracuse 72-62.

The Notre Dame basketball team came out of the gate scorching hot in the first half, jumping out to a 20-10 lead. They then suffered one of a few different cold streaks on the day and allowed the Orange to get right back into it. The Irish were able to go into halftime with a 38-37 lead thanks to a last second triple by Nate Laszewski. Temple Gibbs hit four first half triples on his way to a career high 6 triples on the day. He finished with 18 points.

Elijah Hughes was a star for Syracuse on the day. It seemed whenever Syracuse needed a basket, he was more than happy to oblige. He finished with 22 points and 10 boards and basically matched the great day that TJ provided. Oshae Brissett also logged a double double with 20 and 11. Tyus Battle made some timely shots and ended up with 17.

Notre Dame seems to play their best basketball when they are down by 7-12 points. In the Virginia Tech game, they were constantly fighting back only to stall once they got within a basket or two. While John Mooney was fantastic yet again — logging his ACC leading 7th double double — the Irish still gave up 15 offensive rebounds and were out-rebounded 46-36 overall.

Syracuse — who came into the game ranked 313th in the country in three point shooting — shot 12-29 from three point land. Their three point shooting negated their lack of free throws on the day, attempting only five from the stripe. They were also without Marek Dolezaj and Paschal Chukwu for the last 5 minutes of the game, as both players fouled out.

Prentiss Hubb continued to struggle, going 0-4 on the day. All of his attempts were triples. He was much more selective with his shots, but was still unable to hit the ones he took. I would love to see him get something going to the basket and maybe get himself to the line more often moving forward.

Next. Brian Kelly's Record vs. 2019 Opponents. dark

The Irish came into the day ranked 69th in Kenpom, and while this loss won’t necessarily hurt that number, a win would have been a great resume builder. They are off for a week and will hope to regroup next Saturday, hosting a Boston College team that will also be looking for its first ACC win.