u Notre Dame squanders golden
By BRIAN KESSLER
Sports Editor
MIAMI, Fla.
The Irish bench stood in shock as the Hurricanes celebrated. Freshman Ivan Kartelo pondered his fist against his forehead after a foolish foul. Troy Murphy pulled his jersey over his head in disappointment and squatted on the court.
The Notre Dame men's basketball team talked a lot about opportunities over the past few weeks. It was obvious from their reactions that the Irish knew they let one slip away Saturday.
With Miami's leading scorer Johnny Hemsley on the bench due to a suspension and Notre Dame pumped for a game with postseason implications, this Big East showdown was there for the taking. However, it was the Hurricanes (18-9, 11-3) that slipped past the Irish (16-12, 7-7) with a 55-52 victory at the Miami Arena.
"It's obviously disappointing on our part," head coach Matt Doherty said. "We had a nice opportunity with Hemsley being out. It made for an ugly game early. They struggled without him and they are so good defensively that we had problems scoring. But eventually we started to execute our stuff, got some nice looks and built a nice lead."
Despite having more turnovers (16) than field goal attempts (15) in the first half, the Irish managed to take a 28-22 lead at the break. Miami took twice as many shots in the first 20 minutes and played solid defense, holding the Big East's leading scorer Murphy to just two shots and six points.
"There aren't many better defensive teams in the country than Miami," Doherty said. "They're all good athletes. They're long. They're strong. They play hard. You think you're open, but then there is a hand in your face. They cheat off the five-man onto Troy and we try to make them pay for that, but they made some adjustments. It's frustrating for Troy and it's frustrating for me."
It didn't get any less frustrating in the second half for Doherty and the Irish. After Murphy and sophomore David Graves fueled a 10-0 run seven minutes into the second-half, Miami answered with a 14-3 run of its own. Paolo Coehlo, James Jones and John Salmons drained consecutive 3-pointers and the Hurricanes tied the game at 45.
"I think I should have called a timeout [during that run]," Doherty said. "Coehlo and Salmons were too open. We didn't rotate properly. We have certain slides on our defense and we were guarding guys in the wing and left people open. That was a mental breakdown on our part."
The Hurricanes regained the lead at 49-48 on two free throws by Mario Bland with less than four minutes left and eventually extended their lead to as many as four.
Notre Dame tried to pull even, but turnovers and the inability to convert easy shots late in the game, led to a three-point deficit with 19.3 seconds to play.
After Miami's Vernon Jennings missed his second foul shot, the Irish ran a set play to give Murphy a chance to knock down the game-tying shot. He got the open look, but wasn't able to connect. The Irish scrambled for the rebound and kicked the ball to Matt Carroll, but his attempt rimmed out as time expired.
"We tried to run a play to Troy, but they did a good job defensively," Graves said. "We got a good look at it, and sometimes they go in and sometimes they don't. That's part of the game, but they played a great game defensively."
"We didn't execute well down the stretch," Doherty said. "It's disappointing since we talk about that a lot and work hard to improve. It was a lack of concentration on our part, but credit their defense."
Miami's smothering defense held the Irish just 29 percent shooting in the second half and forced 22 turnovers.
"Obviously our kids' defensive effort in the half court in the second half was the difference in the game," Miami head coach Leonard Hamilton said. "Once we were able to slow the pace down and defend them in the half court, our kids did an excellent job."
Graves led the Irish with 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Murphy finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, but had five turnovers. Point guard Jimmy Dillon had eight points and dished out three assists.
Miami's Mario Bland scored 14 points and grabbed seven boards. Jennings had nine points, eight rebounds and six assists. John Salmons added 12 points.
Notre Dame returns to action Wednesday when it hosts Syracuse at 9 p.m. at the Joyce Center.
"Our kids hurt and that's good because it shows we care," Doherty said. "We're going to get better and come out fighting on Wednesday."
All Sports Stories for Monday, February 28, 2000
