A lot of other teams had played multiple games coming into Saturday but this was the opener for Notre Dame Basketball as they hosted Cal State Northridge. The Irish were able to come away with the win over the Matadors 68-52 but it was not pretty for them especially early on overall before playing much better in the second half and pulling away.
Notre Dame came into this game as a 24-point favorite over Cal State Northridge and only found themselves up six at halftime. The Irish were able to eventually build a more comfortable lead of 20 points throughout the second half but never were able to cover the spread.
Nobody is going to complain about a sixteen-point win to start off the year when there are teams who are being upset to start off the season all across the country this past week.
What is shocking is when you look at the box score for guard Prentiss Hubb and forward Nate Laszewski. These two Irish players combined to score only four points in the contest. All four of those points came from Laszewski as well.
This is just the first game of the season so no need to hit the panic button but the Irish are going to need to put the ball in the basket a lot if they want to have a successful season.
I do not want to spoil a few of the takeaways so I will save those for later. One player who had a great opener was guard Dane Goodwin. The senior guard finished with 18 points (6-8 from three), 4 rebounds, and an assist.
With the victory on Saturday Notre Dame improved to 22-0 in its season openers while Mike Brey has been the head coach.
Here are a few takeaways from the season-opening win for Notre Dame.