Hurricanes hand Irish 63-49 defeat u Notre Dame fails to match Miami's shooting
By KATHLEEN O'BRIEN
Assistant Sports Editor
The ball didn't fall in Notre Dame's favor Tuesday.
Notre Dame (12-8, 3-3) and Miami (12-7, 5-2) were virtually even in every statistical category Tuesday, with one major exception — shooting, which led to a 63-49 Miami victory.
"It's tough when we're shooting the ball and it's not going down for us," Irish forward Harold Swanagan said.
The Irish shot 32 percent from the field compared to the Hurricanes' 47 percent, leading to the lowest point output of the season for the Irish.
Notre Dame head coach Matt Doherty said the effort was there, but Miami came at the blue and gold with more than it could handle.
"You really have to credit Miami's defense, and I didn't have an answer for it," Doherty said. "It was really an awful, helpless feeling on the sidelines. I thought their defense took the energy out of us. I thought our kids played hard, and I thought our kids competed. We didn't have many open looks."
Miami had a lot of open looks, thanks to the 11 assists by Vernon Jennings.
The two teams played on an even keel to open up play, but the Miami defense smothered Notre Dame's shooting.
Trailing by four with 5 minutes, 29 seconds remaining in the first half, the Irish were called for five fouls in the next 2:16, and the Hurricanes pulled ahead by eight.
The Hurricanes built their lead to as many as 12 early in the second half behind five points from Johnny Hemsley, who had 18 in the game.
The Irish began to make a move, however, as Carroll hit a long three to close to within nine.
Then Murphy rebounded a David Graves miss, taking it up for a slam-dunk to lower the gap to seven.
But what could have been a momentum swing for the Irish swung to the other side of the pendulum as the officials whistled Murphy for a technical foul for hanging on the rim. Hemsley nailed both free throw attempts.
"I didn't see him hanging on the rim," said Doherty. "It was unfortunate because we were kind of getting a little juice going."
Murphy tried to use the technical as motivation.
"I played harder after that because it got me fired up," Murphy said. "I wanted to get down and play some defense and get a run going."
Unfortunately for the Irish, that run never developed.
On the following possession, Mario Bland knocked two free throws on a Jere Macura foul. The next time down the court, Bland got two points more on a short jumper to put the Hurricanes ahead by 13.
Notre Dame never got any closer, falling behind by as many as 21 late in the contest.
The Hurricanes' defense controlled Irish star forward Troy Murphy, limiting him to 14 points, compared to his usual 25 per game.
"Our kids were energized," Hamilton said. "[Murphy] worked awful hard inside. He fouled Elton Tyler out, and I think Mario [Bland] had four fouls guarding him."
Notes
u The Hurricanes were an impressive 17 for 18 from the free throw line, giving them an advantage the Irish couldn't combat.
u Both teams had 31 rebounds and 18 personal fouls in the conference contest. Miami had 16 assists to Notre Dame's 13, and 17 turnovers to 18 for Notre Dame.
u Macura and freshman Ivan Kartelo started in place of Graves and Swanagan, who Doherty said were not mentally prepared at the pre-game dinner.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, January 26, 2000
