Notre Dame survives opening-night scare from Radford
Notre Dame didn’t play its season opener like a team worthy of a vote in the national preseason poll. For much of it, Radford was poised to repeat the feeling it had when it won at the Purcell Pavilion in 2018. In the end, the Irish squeaked out a 79-76 victory. Still, they might have a lot to fix between now and when ACC play begins.
Although the Irish (1-0) held a one-point halftime lead, it was the Highlanders (0-2) dictating much of the first-half pace. They doubled down on that in the second half, taking advantage of Irish misses and mistakes to go up by nine midway through the frame. Fortunately, they couldn’t quite do it enough to prevent the Irish from chipping into the lead and then taking it for themselves.
The Highlanders quickly retook the lead, and both teams began making both field goals and free throws to keep the game close. Finally, a Cormac Ryan layup off a Nate Laszewski rebound gave the Irish a one-point lead with nine seconds left. Josiah Jeffers missed a go-ahead layup on the other end, and Laszewski was fouled on a loose ball with 0.4 seconds on the clock. Laszewski sank two free throws, and that was it.
Laszewski was the game’s leading scorer with 28 points, scoring 14 apiece in both halves, and its leading rebounder with 12 (six in each half). Trey Wertz scored 12 of his 18 points on four 3-pointers, dished out four assists and had two steals. Ryan scored 10, and JJ Starling had nine in his collegiate debut.
Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.
Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89
