Notre Dame Basketball: 3 takeaways from double-digit road loss to Illinois

The Maui Invitational was a little bit different this year for the Notre Dame basketball team compared to 2017 when they won the whole thing. This year the Irish left with a disappointing record of 1-2.

Monday night they traveled to Champaign to take on an Illini team that has been underperforming in the early part of the season with two losses of their own. The Irish came in really needing a win but it did not come in this ACC/Big Ten challenge as the Illini were able to handle business and increase the losing streak to three for Notre Dame.

It was a back-and-forth first half with a lot of buckets being traded on both sides. Illinois got a little breathing room including a crucial three-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer by guard Alfonso Plummer to take a 41-34 lead into the locker room. Plummer finished the night with 21 points.

For Notre Dame, it was nice to see forward Nate Laszewski being a primary option especially early on in the game. So far this year he was not a guy who was hunting his shot early but was Monday night. The Irish plan was to take advantage of center Kofi Cockburn in ball screens, plus not being overly comfortable on the perimeter and it definitely had its moments. The Irish did not do this enough in the second half which ended up backfiring. Laszewski finished the night with 13 points with 11 of them coming in the first half.

In the second half, Illinois stretched out to its biggest lead of the night 59-43 after a Jacob Grandison 3-pointer. Notre Dame did not go away quietly as the lead was cut to 67-62 after a Cormac Ryan 3-pointer with about 5 minutes to go in the game. That was as close as the Irish got down the stretch though.

Have to give Illinois a lot of credit for making their free throws in crunch time to help put the game away. The Illini made 11 out of 12 free throws the last few minutes including a few by their star center Kofi Cockburn. Hard to beat a team when they are able to make eleven three-pointers too.

Notre Dame did not shoot the ball terribly ending the game at 45.9% and 36.4% from three. Illinois on the other side shot 52.8% and 40.7%. The Illini made four more three-point field goals which really came down to being a huge factor. Notre Dame just was not able to get enough stops when needed throughout the contest.

Here are three takeaways from the loss for Notre Dame.