Slap the Sign
Fansided

Notre Dame basketball: Poor Shooting vs. UNC spotlights Irish struggles

By Mychal Hunter

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - JANUARY 15: John Mooney #33 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish shoots over Leaky Black #1 and Garrison Brooks #15 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the first half of a game at the Dean Smith Center on January 15, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - JANUARY 15: John Mooney #33 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish shoots over Leaky Black #1 and Garrison Brooks #15 of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the first half of a game at the Dean Smith Center on January 15, 2019 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

Stars Gibbs and Durham returned, but the Fighting Irish continued to struggle when it came to getting the ball in the basket.

The Notre Dame Basketball team welcomed back Temple Gibbs and Juwan Durham Tuesday night, but couldn’t close out a tough road matchup with the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill. The Heels were coming off a bad home loss a the hands of the Louisville Cardinals and looked pretty focused in their return to the court.

Once again poor shooting ultimately doomed the Irish, who did take a lead into the locker room. The shooting, which has been the bane of the Irish all year, was good in the first half as the good guys went 6-13. However, they were unable to maintain, making just three triples in the second half.

Temple Gibbs struggled mightily in his return from illness, going 1-9 from the field. Some of that may be attributed to illness or that UNC guard Kenny Williams is one of best defenders in the ACC. Nate Laszewski also struggled, going 1-6 from the floor and 1-5 from deep.

Big John Mooney played well, which has become typical as the season progresses. The steady big man logged 16 points and 19 rebounds and continues to lead the ACC with 8 double doubles.

For North Carolina, it was a fairly predictable game. They shot decent from deep at 9-21 and out rebounded the Irish 47-36, including 16 offensive rebounds.

Overall, this was a really good performance for Notre Dame in a tough road environment. With 3 ties and 9 lead changes, the Irish were able to hang with one of the top teams in the country — which is a sure sign of growth. Freshman Prentiss Hubb has now logged back to back decent games and John Mooney continues to be a force. I continue to think that Temple Gibbs will eventually get his jumper figured out. He is simply too good not to.

If the Irish can get healthy and figure out their shooting woes, they have a couple winnable games against NC State (home) and Georgia Tech (road) before facing Duke and Virginia. At 1-3 in the ACC you have to think that those first two games are must wins. You don’t want to 2-6 or 1-7 in this league come February.

Next. ND Women take down Virginia Tech. dark

All of that said, if the Irish can’t get routine, high-percentage shots to fall when they need them to, nothing else is going to matter.