Notre Dame's storied season ends with NIT loss
By BRIAN KESSLER
Assistant Sports Editor
NEW YORK
The third time was not a charm for Notre Dame Thursday night, as the Irish failed to win their first-ever NIT championship for the third time in school history.
Notre Dame (22-15), who was the runner-up in 1973 and 1992, dropped a 71-61 contest to Wake Forest (22-14) in the NIT title game in front of 12,351 fans at Madison Square Garden.
"You have to take your hat off to them," sophomore David Graves said. "They played well defensively and shut down our offense, but we never quit. A couple shots here and there and it's a different ball game. But that's the way it goes."
It didn't go Notre Dame's way in the first half. Wake Forest outscored the Irish 25-6 over an 11-minute span to take a 17-point lead with less than two minutes to go.
"You've got to score to win and you gain momentum by making plays and scoring baskets," Irish sophomore All-American Troy Murphy said. "If you can't score for a long time, you kill your momentum. Credit their defense. They were tough and hit some shots. Can't have stretches where you don't score against good teams. We tried to do that tonight and came up short."
The Irish turned the ball over 13 times in the first 16 minutes and the Deamon Deacons were able to capitalize on those miscues, converting the 13 turnovers into 23 points.
A technical foul on Irish head coach Matt Doherty with 1:59 left in the first half, however, served as a wake up call for Notre Dame.
The Irish reeled off eight straight points to close the half and cut the Deacon lead to nine.
"Coach is our team leader and our emotional leader," Murphy said. "I think he got us going. He got us on a run when we weren't playing with a lot of emotion. With Coach doing that he really got us fired up and back into the game before halftime."
The Deacons, however, struck back in the second half and stretched their lead to as many as 20 at the 12:35 mark.
Tournament MVP Robert O'Kelley caught fire and drained some clutch 3-pointers to give Wake Forest a comfortable lead.
"Credit O'Kelley. He's a competitive kid," Doherty said. "He's struggled shooting the ball and I was hoping he would struggle one more time, but obviously he did not. He really came alive in the second half and hit a couple shots that really hurt us."
Every time the Irish made a run, it seemed that the Deacons had an answer.
"It's pretty demoralizing when we played defense for 30 seconds and then they run off some dribble penetration and kick it out for a three; that's tough," Murphy said. "They hit some big threes. O'Kelley and [Craig] Dawson were feeling it. That's when it started to slip away for us."
The Irish, however, wouldn't go down without a fight, as they cut the lead to single digits with 2:49 to go. Notre Dame got within five with 27 seconds left, but poor execution down the stretch sealed its fate.
"It's tough to have turnovers down the stretch," Doherty said. "When you run some set plays and get a player open, you've got to deliver. You can't afford to make mistakes down the stretch and we made some crucial turnovers."
The Irish shot just 37 percent from the field and 28 percent from beyond the arc. Murphy led the way with 20 points and six rebounds. Graves added 17 points and six boards.
Four Deacon players scored in double figures, O'Kelley who finished with a team-high 19 points and Dawson came off the bench to contribute 13 points.
Notes:
u Sophomores Graves and Murphy were named to the 2000 NIT All-Tournament team.
u With five assists in the NIT championship game, senior point guard Jimmy Dillon tied the team's single season assists record. He now shares the record with Jack Meehan who dished out 214 in the 1970-71 season.
u The Irish are now 0-3 in the NIT title game.
All Sports Stories for Friday, March 31, 2000
