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After losing four straight game the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (18-7, 7-5 ACC) got back on track on Tuesday night with a 88-81 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons (14-10, 5-7 ACC). The offense has been pretty cold during the four game slide, but the Irish seemed to get back offensively against the Demon Deacons. Lets see what the numbers say.
Notre Dame 1st Half Stats - Wake Forest
| Teams | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Rebs | Assists | TO | PPP | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Rebs | Assists | TO | PPP | PTS |
| Notre Dame | 14-32 (43.8%) | 4/13 (30.8%) | 4-4 (100%) | 16 | 9 | 5 | 1.13 | 36 |
| Wake Forest | 14-33 (42.4%) | 5/11 (45.5%) | 8-9 (88.9%) | 22 | 8 | 6 | 1.24 | 41 |
Individual 1st Half Stats - Wake Forest
| Players (ND) | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Reb | Assists | TO | Mins | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players (ND) | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Reb | Assists | TO | Mins | PTS |
| No.0 Pflueger | 1-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 2 |
| No.1 Torres | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| No.2 Gibbs | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| No.3 Beachem | 4-8 | 2-6 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 10 |
| No.4 Ryan | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| No.5 Farrell | 2-5 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 5 |
| No.23 Geben | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| No.32 Vasturia | 2-5 | 1-3 | 3-3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 8 |
| No.35 Colson | 5-9 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 11 |
| Players (WF) | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Reb | Assists | TO | Mins | PTS |
| No.0 Childress | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
| No.1 Woods | 3-4 | 2-2 | 1-1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 9 |
| No.4 Moore | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 |
| No.10 Wilbekin | 0-4 | 0-2 | 2-2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 13 | 2 |
| No.13 Crawford | 3-6 | 2-3 | 3-4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 18 | 11 |
| No.20 Collins | 5-8 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 15 | 12 |
| No.34 Arians | 2-5 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| No.44 Mitoglou | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 0 |
Overall, Notre Dame shot the ball well in the first half. The only problem was that they couldn’t hit the outside shot. Notre Dame’s struggles from three has what plagued them over their four game slide. It looked to be more of the same in the first half against Wake as they shot just 30% from beyond the arc.
Wake dominated the boards for the most part in the first half, but the Irish closed the gap a little bit in towards the end of the half.
Notre Dame’s 1.13 PPP in the first have wasn’t terrible, but its wasn’t great. We’ve seen more efficient efforts out of the Irish this season. One of the reasons for this goes back to Notre Dame’s struggles from three.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the play of Wake’s John Collins. That kid an absolute beast and super athletic. He has an extra bounce in his step that allows him to terrorize teams on the boards. Just 10 minutes into the game Collins had 10 points and eight rebounds. If Collins can develop his left hand and some sort of a jump shot, he’s going to be a very good NBA player. DraftExpress.com projects Collins as late first round pick, but if he decides to come back for his junior season Wake will be a scary team next year in the ACC.
Notre Dame 2nd Half Stats - Wake Forest
| Teams | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Reb | Assists | TO | PPP | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teams | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Reb | Assists | TO | PPP | PTS |
| Notre Dame | 15-27 | 9-13 | 13-17 | 19 | 8 | 2 | 1.44 | 52 |
| Wake Forest | 14-37 | 3-10 | 9-12 | 21 | 9 | 3 | 1.08 | 40 |
Individual Stats 2nd Half - Wake Forest
| Players (ND) | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Reb | Assists | TO | Mins | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players (ND) | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Reb | Assists | TO | Mins | Pts |
| No.0 Pflueger | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 |
| No.2 Gibbs | 1-4 | 0-1 | 5-5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 7 |
| No.3 Beachem | 3-6 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18 | 9 |
| No.5 Farrell | 4-6 | 2-3 | 1-2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 20 | 11 |
| No.32 Vasturia | 2-2 | 2-2 | 3-4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 9 |
| No.35 Colson | 5-7 | 2-2 | 4-6 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 16 |
| Players (WF) | FG | 3-PT FG | FT | Rebs | Assists | TO | Mins | Pts |
| No.0 Childress | 0-2 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 |
| No.1 Woods | 3-8 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 7 |
| No.4 Moore | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| No.10 Wilbekin | 0-2 | 0-1 | 3-3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 3 |
| No.13 Crawford | 3-8 | 1-3 | 1-1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 8 |
| No.20 Collins | 4-11 | 0-0 | 4-6 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 12 |
| No.34 Arians | 2-3 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 16 | 5 |
| No.44 Mitoglou | 2-2 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 5 |
Notre Dame’s offense was much better in the second half, almost averaging a point and a half per possession. It was a much more efficient half for the Irish.
After struggling from the outside in the first half, the Irish were 9/13 from the three in the second. Notre Dame’s success on offense is largely predicated on how well they shoot the outside shot and Tuesday night was the perfect example of that.
The two teams were pretty much even in every stat line in the second half, except the Irish shot the ball considerably better than Wake. Notre Dame cleaned up the glass in the second half. They were just -2 in the rebounding margin.
The Irish also tightened up defensively in the second half. They got stops when they needed it. Notre Dame held Wake to just over a point per possession in the second half. If they can hold most teams to that, they should be in good position to win most games. The Demon Deacons also didn’t shoot the ball well from three in the second half as they were 3-10.
Junior forward Bonzie Colson had a huge second half as he had a double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds. He finished the game with a monster stat line of 27 points, 16 rebounds and five blocks. He went toe-to-toe all night long with Collins. Collins finished with 24 points and 14 boards.
Senior wing V.J. Beachem continues to have some of the weirdest stat lines. It’s great he’s pouring in 20 points, but how does someone his size (6’8”) only pull down one rebound? Here are some similar stat lines he’s had this season:
vs. Colgate - 20 pts, 2 reb
vs. Clemson - 22 pts, 1 reb
vs. Duke - 20 pts, 3 reb
at UNC - 20 pts, 1 reb
In the non-conference play he was rebounding the ball pretty well — grabbing 5-8 board per game. Since conference play has started he’s averaging just 2.9 RPG.
Senior guard Steve Vasturia found his shot against the Deacs. In his previous four games he was 3/18 from three. On Tuesday night he was 3/5 from beyond the arc. I’m going to say he’s back.
In my preview of the matchup I said that if Notre Dame got to the 80s they’d be in a good position to win the game, and they did exactly that. This was Notre Dame’s first scoring effort in the 80s since their last win over two weeks ago against Syracuse.
Notre Dame’s offense is back on track. They performed much better in the second half against North Carolina on Sunday and they carried that into Tuesday’s game.
The Irish will be tested again on Saturday as Florida State comes into town. Make sure to keep up with us here at OFD for more basketball coverage.