Story By: Sol Tucker
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
Coming into today’s game against Notre Dame, the Hoyas had some hope about the direction they could be heading this season. Well, that was until the Irish had their ways at Captial One Arena today.
The Fighting Irish basically dominated the Hoyas on all aspects of the scoring realm after leading 26-22 with five minutes left in the first half.
After the Irish regrouped, Matt Allocco and Nikita Konstantynovskyi scored the next eight points and Notre Dame finished on an 18-7 run. Allocco scored 15 points in the first half, including 4 of 5 3-pointers, and Notre Dame took a 44-29 lead at the break.
“When you score, you get energy. When you don’t score, it takes your energy and then everybody feels like they have to make the next shot, versus trusting what we’re trying to do, which is playing basketball the right way. At the end of the day, you get your energy off your defense. When you’re getting stops, most of the time you get out on transition and score,” said Hoyas Head Coach Ed Cooley.
The big difference in this game was the inability for the Hoyas to find any offense during the first run by Notre Dame, where they found themselves down by as much as 19 points.
The Hoyas missed 15 of 18 3-pointers in the first half and finished 8 for 32 for the game.
Malik Mack led the scoring for the Hoyas with 16 points (5-15, 4-8 3PT) and Jayden Epps scored 13 points (5-17 FG, 3-9 3PT). While freshman center Thomas Sorber did come off the bench with a stomach bug, he finished with 12 points and 4 rebounds in 23 minutes.
Next up for the Hoyas a match-up with Mount St. Mary’s at Capital One 830pm on Wednesday night.
