Notre Dame Basketball: Takeaways from big road win over Louisville

The Notre Dame basketball team got a huge road win in ACC play Saturday on the road at Louisville with a twelve-point victory. With the win, the Irish find themselves right in the thick of things near the top of the ACC standings at the moment with a 5-2 record so far through league play.

Everybody that follows college basketball knows that this is a down year for the ACC conference compared to years in the past. At the same time, you still have to go out there and try to handle business and rack up and collect as many wins as possible. Right now through seven games in ACC play, the Fighting Irish has played well winning five of their first seven contests. Still, a very long way to go, but as of today, Notre Dame finds itself tied with Duke for second place in the ACC standings.

On Saturday against Louisville, the 3-point field goals were flying and connecting on both sides inside the KFC Yum! Center. The Irish were able to make seven 3-pointers in the first half, while Louisville was able to make nine 3-pointers on their end. Guard Jarrod West had a great first half for Louisville making four 3-point field goals and 14 points total. West was a key factor and provided a big spark for Louisville coming off the bench. The Cardinals took a seven-point lead heading into the half.

Not sure what was said by Mike Brey and the rest of the coaching staff during halftime but whatever it was it definitely worked and sparked the Irish as they came out firing on both sides of the floor. Notre Dame was able to erase the seven-point deficit at the half rather quickly thanks to a 10-2 run early in the second half. The Irish were able to keep up their sharp shooting from downtown in the second half making eight more 3-point field goals to make a total of fifteen on the afternoon.

Louisville’s hot shooting did not carry over from the first half as they were only able to knock down four 3-point field goals on their end. Notre Dame was able to cool off the Cardinals which really turned out to be the difference in coming away with the road victory.

Louisville may not have shot it great in the second half but it did not stop them from trading baskets back and forth with Notre Dame. That was until Notre Dame and Blake Wesley went on a 20-3 run to balloon the once-close game up to a 14 point lead with just under five minutes left in the game.

With the victory on Saturday Notre Dame snapped a six-game losing streak to Louisville. The Irish had four starters score in double figures on the afternoon with freshman guard Blake Wesley leading the way with a game-high of 22 points.

Here are a few takeaways from Notre Dame in their big win over Louisville on Saturday.