Notre Dame Basketball: Irish get past Colgate 77-62

After two disappointing losses, the Irish got back on track Monday night.

The No.25 Notre Dame men’s basketball team improved to 10-2 on Monday night by beating the Colgate Raiders 77-62. It was a rather lackluster performance for the Irish. While the Raiders were never in striking distance, Notre Dame failed to put their foot on their throat and run away in the second half. At one point, Colgate cut the lead to 10 midway through the game’s final frame. The Irish quickly got it together though and never let the Raiders get any closer.

The Irish offense never really gelled as they turned the ball over 14 times. The 77 points was also well under Notre Dame’s season average of 86.1. The Irish did get bounce back performance from V.J. Beachem. The senior captain scored 20 points on 7/13 shooting, including 6/10 from three-point land.

Martinas Geben also gave the Irish some valuable minutes, albeit in limited time. In 13 minutes Geben had 8 points, 4 rebounds and an assist. The Irish are going to need him going forward into ACC play.

My pick to click, Bonzie Colson, also had a productive night, as the junior had 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Steve Vasturia continued to struggle on the offensive end. For the second straight game Vasturia was held to single digits with just 7 points. Over the last two contests Vasturia is shooting a mere 23% from the field.

The Irish continued to get stellar play out of point guard Matt Farrell. Farrell scored 13 points, dished out 7 assists, and hauled in 3 rebounds.

Rex Pflueger continued to give the Irish strong minutes off the bench. He didn’t make an appearance in the scoring column, but his presence was seen rebounding and on the defensive end. An interesting little nugget about Pflueger is that he has not turned the ball over in his last 211 minutes of play.

The play of the game didn’t happen during the actual game, it happened after. During the halftime intermission Matt Farrell’s brother, Army Lieutenant Bo Farrell, came on the big screen and said he had a special message for his brother after the game. In the postgame message he sent his well wishes to Matt and the Irish, and then surprised Matt out on the Purcell Pavilion floor. I was at the game and it was a cool sight to see.

The Irish will now have a brief break for Christmas before reconvening as a team on Christmas day. The Irish have one more non-conference game left with St. Peters on December 18th. ACC action will start on December 31st with a game at Pittsburgh.