Irish Fall At No. NR/24 Louisville

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Notre Dame men’s basketball team fell to 13-16 overall and  3-13 in Atlantic Coast Conference play with a 75-61 loss at No. NR/24 Louisville (19-11, 10-7) in the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky, on Sunday afternoon.

The Irish stayed with the Cardinals until a three-minute scoring drought in the second half, coupled with a 9-0 run allowed the Cardinals to take control of the game.

Junior John Mooney led the Irish with 22 points and 13 rebounds, while freshman Prentiss Hubb added 13 points, six assists and two steals.

HOW IT HAPPENED

A slow offensive start led to the Irish trailing 9-2 early, but a three-point field goal from Hubb and an offensive rebound put back from Mooney cut the Louisville lead to two points.

Louisville answered with a run of their own to jump ahead 15-7, but again Notre Dame responded a three from Hubb, a T.J. Gibbs jumper and Mooney dunk to force a Louisville timeout. The rest of the first half was a back-and-forth affair, highlighted by Mooney coming close to posting a double-double in the first 20 minutes with 10 points and nine rebounds.

The home team came out hot in the first part of the second half to build a 10-point lead, but Gibbs answered with back-to-back three pointers to keep the Irish in range at the first media timeout. Unfortunately the Irish could get no closer than six points throughout second half as Louisville kept their distance despite Mooney pouring in 10 points over the first eight minutes of the half.

The Cardinals eventually seized control of the contest by shooting eight-for-10 during a 10-minute stretch and building a lead as high as 18 points before the final winning margin of 16 points.

NOTRE DAME PLAYER OF THE GAME

Junior John Mooney continued his stellar third-year campaign with a team-high 22 points and 13 rebounds – including scoring 10 points over the first eight minutes of the second half.

NOTRE DAME STATS OF THE GAME

  • John Mooney (22 pts, 13 reb) earned his 18th double-double of the season, 12th in ACC competition and his fourth 20-point, 10-rebound game of the year.
  • Freshman Prentiss Hubb scored in double figures for the fourth time in the last six games, finishing with 16 points and six assists.
  • With those six assists from Hubb, the rookie now has 25 over the past four games.

UP NEXT

Notre Dame takes on Clemson in its final home game of the 2018-19 season on Wednesday, March 6, at 9 p.m. ET in Purcell Pavilion.