Notre Dame Basketball: 3 takeaways from huge win over North Carolina
Notre Dame Basketball got a very big win over North Carolina at home on Wednesday night in South Bend. The Irish improved to 8-5 on the season and 2-1 in ACC play after the victory over the Tar Heels.
Playing at home Notre Dame is a very different team as they are now 6-0 playing at the Joyce Center in front of their home crowd. They are a very confident bunch at home and now have two resume wins with victories over Kentucky last month and now North Carolina. The Irish now need to show they can win consistently on the road moving forward.
Notre Dame still has a long way to travel to get back into the NCAA Tournament discussion but they now have won five of their last six games, so maybe this is the start of something for Mike Brey and Notre Dame in ACC conference play here on out.
North Carolina was short-handed coming into this game with not having forward Justin McKoy, guard Kerwin Walton, or Marquette transfer forward in Dawson Garcia. The Tar Heels found themselves down the majority of the game but found themselves right in the thick of things down the stretch.
In the end, they just seemed gassed down the stretch, especially their forwards in Armando Bacot and Brady Manek. North Carolina really missed Dawson Garcia and what he brings to the floor the most as the other two in McKoy and Walton have not been that productive so far this season.
It may have been freezing outside in South Bend at tip-off but in the second half, both teams were shooting it really well and on fire at stretches in the half. Notre Dame shot the ball extremely well knocking down 13 three-point field goals on the night. North Carolina also was able to shoot it fairly well from downtown making eight three-point fields goals on their end.
The Tar Heels were led by forward Armando Bacot who led them with 21 points and 17 rebounds. This was Bacot’s tenth double-double this season. R.J. Davis and Caleb Love both had good shooting games finishing with 19 points and 15 points respectfully for the Tar Heels. For Notre Dame they had three starters finish in double figures.
A starter not named Dane Goodwin or Blake Wesley finally was the leading scorer for Notre Dame. Forward Nate Laszewski led the way for Notre Dame with 20 points and eight rebounds. The 20 points scored for Laszewski is a season-high for the senior big man. Blake Wesley finished with 18 points and Dane Goodwin had 17 points to continue his streak of scoring in double figures in every game this season to date.
Here are three key takeaways for Notre Dame in a resume win over North Carolina.