Truck Bryant’s 24 points led West Virginia to a 72-58 victory over Notre Dame in Morgantown on Saturday.  Bryant, who came into the game shooting just 26.5% from three point range, made 4-6 from long range in the second half to lead an early rally that the Irish never overcame.

Ben Hansbrough led Notre Dame with 19 points before fouling out with 2:20 to play.

Fouls were a bone of contention throughout a game of dazzling inconsistency by the referees.  Both coaches earned technical fouls, and it would be hard to say that either should have been less offended by the plays that drew their ire.  The game often resembled rugby, yet West Virginia was called for just 13 fouls.  ND was whistled 20 times, the last 4 or 5 intentional at the end of the game.

The Mountaineers, desperate for a noteworthy win with a difficult schedule remaining, improved to 17-9/8-6.  Notre Dame fell to 21-5/10-4.  The Irish continue to hold second place in the Big East, but they missed an opportunity to move a game closer to the top of the conference after Pittsburgh’s loss to St. John’s earlier in the afternoon.

Notre Dame took a one point lead to halftime, but West Virginia’s shooters got hot in the second half, starting with an 8 point run after the Irish made the half’s opening basket.  ND’s shooters never got going.  After a 29% first half, WVU shot 54% in the second half.  ND followed a 35% first half with more of the same.

“Second shots hurt us at a key times, specifically in the first five minutes of the second half,” said Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey.  ‘We didn’t defend as well, we didn’t concentrate as well, we didn’t chase down loose balls as well and it made them believe and their crowd believe.”

Twice it looked like the Irish would stay in the game against the Mountaineers’ hot second half shooting, the first a Carleton Scott three to stop the early 8-0 run and cut the lead to 36-34 and later on Tim Abromaitis’ lone made three after another WVU run to cut the lead to 45-40.  Each time the Mountaineers re-stretched the lead, and Notre Dame never got closer than 8 points the rest of the way.

Joe Mazzulla always seems to play well against the Irish, and Saturday’s game was no exception.  The 6’2″ point guard had 16 points on 6-10 shooting from the field, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds.  Kevin Jones added 14 points and 10 rebounds to the WVU tally.

“Mazulla was good early, getting them confident,” Brey said.  “We had a hard time keeping him out of the lane, and that continued for, really, 40 minutes even though we put some different guys on him and tried to play some zone.”

Notre Dame’s last good chance to make it a contest came with 10:23 to play.  Mazzulla drove to the basket and was fouled with no call.  Although he might have stumbled into Mazzula after contact from behind, it looked like Scott pushed him to the ground as Cooley rebounded and threw an outlet pass.  As ND’s break unfolded, Huggins was called for a technical foul; and Abromaitis made both free throws to cut the lead to 8 points.  The Irish had possession and a chance to further cut the lead; but Scott missed an open three, and West Virginia scored the next 7 points.

The game was never close again.

Noteworthy

• If you want to know about the Notre Dame offense, look at the percentage of assisted baskets.  It’s usually well into the 60s, but today only 11 of 21 baskets were assisted – 52%.
• Scott (11), Ty Nash (10), Abromaitis (9) and Martin (9) weren’t far off of their averages, but ND’s bench did not score.
• Notre Dame had a slight rebounding advantage – 39 to 38 including 16 offensive rebounds that led to 19 second chance points.  It’s unusual to get that many second chances in a loss.  On the other hand, the game would have been completely out of control without the offensive rebounds… Are we thankful for small favors?
• Scott led ND with 11 rebounds.
• West Virginia had 10 points off of turnovers to Notre Dame’s 5.
• Martin’s three point basket a little over 2 minutes into the game gave the Irish least one made three in 400 straight games.  It’s an interesting stat, but I certainly hope a major college team can muster a three at least once a game.
• Speaking of threes, ND has made just 26.6% of its three point attempts in its 34 Big East losses.  The Irish have made 42.6% from long range in conference wins.  The two point differential in wins vs. losses is just 4 percentage points.

Next

The Irish complete a run of three road games when they head to Providence to play the Friars on Wednesday at 7:00 Eastern Time.  It’s a Big East Network game, so check your local listings and/or your satellite sports package to see if it’s available to you.

We’ll have a game preview for you on Tuesday evening.

– Kevin O’Neill