Mens Basketball: Irish ground upset-minded Eagles
By ANDREW SOUKUP
Sports Writer
Almost an hour and a half after he drifted in and out of consciousness lying on the floor of the Conte Forum, Matt Carroll once again found himself staring up at the ceiling.
Only this time, his teammates weren't watching worriedly, they were screaming ecstatically.
Carroll had just been fouled after drilling a 3-pointer, and he hit the subsequent free throw to deliver a backbreaking blow in overtime to an upset-minded Boston College squad. Carroll's rare four-point play gave the Irish a five-point lead, helping No. 16 Notre Dame edge past the Eagles 101-96.
"I'll live with Matt Carroll, shooting that thing with our life on the line, forever," Irish head coach Mike Brey said of the senior guard who left the game for 41 seconds after getting fouled hard in the first half. "I can watch the Super Bowl with a free mind."
The Irish, who earned their second Big East road win in as many games and are off to their best start ever in the Big East, blew a 10-point halftime lead and watched the Eagles nearly pull off a stunning upset.
In fact, the Irish had a golden chance to win the game at the end of regulation. But Chris Thomas, who scored 25 of his 28 points in the second half, dribbled the ball for Notre Dame's entire possession and forced up a terrible shot from the right elbow, sending the home crowd into a frenzy and the game into overtime.
Yet as the Irish walked to their bench, Carroll rallied his team around them, reminding the Irish what happened the last time Notre Dame played an overtime game.
"I said, `Think back to Georgetown, we've done this before,'" Carroll told the South Bend Tribune, referring to Notre Dame's quadruple-overtime victory at Georgetown last season. "We were more prepared than they were and we were going to do this. I just wanted to remind everybody to be confident."
Thomas got the Irish going quickly in overtime, making a nifty pass underneath the basket to Dan Miller. After an Eagle free throw, the Irish then scored nine of the game's next 11 points to pull comfortably ahead, 92-83.
Even as Boston College mounted a comeback, drawing the score to within four, the Irish demonstrated exceptional poise from the free-throw line, connecting on 12-of-17 free throws in the overtime period.
The Irish had the chance to put the game away early, but never did. After taking a comfortable 47-37 lead in the first half, the Eagles then scored the first 11 points of the second half to take a one-point lead.
The two teams then seesawed back and forth for most of the half, trading baskets and leads at will. The biggest lead for Boston College came halfway through the second half, when they led 55-50.
But the Irish slowly began chipping away at the lead, and when Thomas drilled a long 3-pointer with less than five minutes to go, the Irish led 71-65.
The two teams then traded baskets, and with 1:29 remaining, Troy Bell hit a pair of free throws to pull the Eagles to 81-80.
After Jordan Cornette and Thomas missed a pair of shots, Cornette forced a jump ball with Bell, which gave the Irish the ball with 41.9 seconds remaining and had Eagles coach Al Skinner screaming at the officials.
Thomas was then fouled with 37.6 seconds left, but only made one of two free throws. Torrian Jones then fouled Bell, who finished with a game-high 31 points, who made both free throws to set up one final attempt for the Irish.
But Thomas' wild last-second attempt bounced off the backboard, and the game went into overtime.
"We knew it was coming," Brey said. "There's no way I went in at halftime thinking this was going to be an easy game."
All Sports Stories for Monday, January 27, 2003
