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Notre Dame Defense Clamps Down On USF

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The Associated Press

Published: February 16, 2009

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame turned to its defense when its offense sputtered.

The Fighting Irish held South Florida without a field goal for more than nine minutes late, finishing the game on a 16-6 run to win 67-57 on Sunday.

"I think our defense the last seven, eight minutes was excellent," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "We just kept getting back, getting stops and getting rebounds."

The Irish went more than seven minutes with just one field goal, a rebound basket by Luke Harangody with 9:14 left that broke a 51-51 tie.

Harangody, who finished with 19 points, added another basket inside four minutes later. Then Kyle McAlarney added a 3 with 2:47 left to give the Irish a 58-51 lead. McAlarney, who also scored 19, added another 3 moments later.

USF coach Stan Heath was hoping the Irish would have a letdown following their win against Louisville.

"I didn't think that was the case. I think they were very motivated to play," he said.

The Irish players said they were caught off balance by USF's use of a triangle-and-two defense.

"They were kind of playing a defense we'd never seen before, it kinda took us out of our rhythm on our sets," Harangody said. "So, I think that's the time where you just need to dig in on the defensive end. That's where you need to get stops and that's what we did."

It was an unimpressive victory for the Irish (14-10, 5-7 Big East) coming off their biggest league win ever, a 33-point win vs. No. 5 Louisville on Thursday. Brey, though, said it was probably good for the Irish to have to turn to their defense to get a victory.

"Hopefully that's something we can build on," he said.

The Irish led by as many as 14 in the first half, but USF (8-16, 3-9) went on an 8-0 run to tie the score at 51 on a free throw by Jesus Verdejo midway through the second half. They didn't score again, though, until Alex Rivas Sanchez scored with 1:11 left.

"We had a couple of bad decisions," said Dominique Jones, who scored 14 for USF. "We had a few good looks, but we didn't knock them down. We had a good chance to win the game."

Harangody struggled for much of the game before coming up with the two big baskets. He was 6-for-15 from the floor, but he also added 11 rebounds. McAlarney had 11 points in the first half, but didn't score in the second half until he had the two big 3-pointers. Ryan Ayers added 12 points.

"We had to kind of grind this one out tonight. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but obviously we're going to take the win," Harangody said. "They got up into us to make us have tough possessions but we got up into them."

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