Irish Down DePaul for 33 Straight at Home
3rd Feb 2008
Notre Dame 89
DePaul 80
The streak extended to thirty-three games tonight with the win over DePaul. That’s 33 consecutive wins at home in South Bend for the Fighting Irish, a remarkable number. They now stand at 16-4 overall and 6-2 in the Big East, and expand their winning streak to three games. DePaul on the other hand moves to 9-12 so far this season, 3-4 in Big East conference games. They are now on a three game losing streak, placing them far down in the conference standings. Once again, Luke Harangody took over and continued his dominance for Notre Dame.
Notre Dame started off slow like they almost always do and gave up some easy points early on. Their first nine points were scored by forward, Luke Harangody, the leading scorer in the Big East. Both teams were shooting a lot of three’s in the beginning of the game and weren’t have much luck, so they drove the ball to the basket. Hillesland had a couple nice athletic plays in the paint to give the Irish some points. He finished with ten on the night, including a spectacular highlight-reel dunk.
The game started picking up when Kyle McAlarney for Notre Dame and Dar Tucker for DePaul started hitting some threes. Both players finished with five three-pointers each, although Tucker had a much higher percentage. McAlarney was 5 of 13, while Dar Tucker shot five less and made the same amount. Three-point shots kept the game close for DePaul all night considering they made 11 of 23 attempts, 47.8%. Notre Dame finished with eight total threes, the others from Zeller (2) and Ayers (1), on 22 attempts, 36.4%.
The Irish played very strong defense throughout the game, but the outside shooting of DePaul was tough to stop. Even if Notre Dame got a hand in Tucker or Burns’ face, they still made their shots. The Fighting Irish forced a lot of turnovers (12), steals (6), and blocks (4) which led to a lot of fast breaks. However, the ND defense is what won the game tonight and the Irish should be respected as not just an offensive team.
The score at the half was 46-35 in favor of Notre Dame, and Luke Harangody already had 19 points and 9 rebounds. He was once again too much to handle, this time for DePaul senior, Wesley Green and freshman Mac Koshwal. Harangody finished with 29 points and 14 rebounds, another double-double for the sophomore out of Schererville, Indiana. He has scored 25+ points in the last three games and 14 rebounds in the last two. Luke is a monster who draws so many fouls and gets to the free-throw line a lot. What’s great about this is, he makes his free-throws, 81.0% of them. I can’t say enough about Luke Harangody, he is an incredible, tenacious, relentless young player.
Ryan Ayers had a strong performance tonight finishing with 9 points off the bench. I don’t think him not starting is a problem, considering he played more than three of the five starters, including Zach Hillesland. Ayers brings so much energy to the game and has a true passion for the sport. He is always the most energetic player on the court and definitely a vocal leader for the team. Ryan’s most memorable play against DePaul was his beautiful, beautiful slam dunk in the second half that put Notre Dame up 9.
Tory Jackson has improved tremendously and is extremely sneaky. He is only 5′10″ and somehow manages to grab offensive rebounds a lot. You won’t even see him and than out of no where he has the ball and an easy two points. Tory finished with eight points, four rebounds, and six assists.
McAlarney had another big day from beyond the arc, his eighth game this season with at least five made threes. That’s just incredible. He is shooting 45.1% from downtown and you must realize that a lot of his shots are from NBA range and beyond. Kyle is just an outstanding shooter who finished with 17 points and 6 assists.
The Fighting Irish. This team exemplifies the meaning of that title. They never give up and give 110% effort every second of every game, no matter what. The reason for their winning is their determination and relentlessness to score and get second opportunities. Each and every one of the players on Notre Dame have that will and fight in them, which is what makes this team so special.
As I had stated in my previous posts, if the Irish beat Providence and DePaul, they will get into the top 25. That is going to happen, guaranteed. Look out for the polls within a day or two and you will see Notre Dame mentioned along with the Nation’s best teams. The most reasonable ranking would be somewhere around twenty, but you never know. We will just have to wait and see what happens.
And so once again, Player of the Game goes to Luke Harangody for his phenomenal performace against the Blue Demons. Hopefully he can continue with the 20+ point games with rivals Seton Hall and Marquette coming up next week. Notre Dame will be at Seton Hall on Wednesday for a 7:30 tipoff and looking for revenge on Saturday at home against the Golden Eagles. Those are two very competitive games, so hopefully I can see them on TV. Great game tonight and as always, Go Irish!
