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Notre Dame loses NCAA heartbreaker to Old Dominion, 51-50

By
BRYAN FITZGERALD,
IrishCentral.Com Staff Writer

Published Thursday, March 18, 2010, 5:30 PM
Updated Thursday, March 18, 2010, 6:33 PM

 

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Notre Dame's Luke Harangody tries to guard Old Dominion's Gerald Lee

Looks like the luck of the Irish has run out.

Considered one of the hottest teams of the Big East coming into today’s first round NCAA action, the No. 6-seeded Notre Dame Fighting Irish (23-12) fell in a heartbreaking shocker, 51-50, to the No.11 seeded Old Dominion Monarchs (27-8) in New Orleans.

The CAA-league champion Monarchs had trouble against the nation’s fifth most effectient offense in Notre Dame. The Irish controlled the game, leading 30-22 in the second half, paced by the play of Ben Hanborough (17 points, 6 rebounds, 7-13 FG) and Carleton Scott (14 points, 10 rebounds).

Old Dominion responded by changing their defensive strategy from a zone to man-to-man in the second half, preventing Notre Dame from having  their way inside and getting to the charity stripe, where they shot a paltry 2 of 3.

The Irish then had to rely on three point shooting, unable to get the ball inside. Hitting only 6/26 treys, the Irish fell behind Old Dominion, who went on a 9-0 run late in the second half.

The Monarchs’ Frank Hassell's (15 points, 9 rebounds) three-point play for Old Dominion with 5:51 remaining tied it at 43. Darius James traded 3-pointers with Scott and Gerald Lee (9 points) giving the Monarchs the lead with a shot from the perimeter. Lee made a free throw to make it 49-46 with 56.2 seconds left after the Harangody inside miss.

Notre Dame’s Tory Jackson missed a potential tying 3, but James missed the front end of a one-and-one from the foul line for Old Dominion. Harangody  finally scored his first points of the game with 12.6 seconds left to make it 49-48, but Carter made both free throws with 9.6 seconds remaining.

The Irish had a chance to tie the score with a last-second Scott  three-point attempt that barely missed the mark. Notre Dame’s big man, Harangody, fell short, scoring only four points on 2 of 9 shooting. He was well off his average of 22 points per game.

Harangody was quoted after the game as saying "When you don't hit a shot early and you're coming off the bench, it's just very hard to get in a rhythm. I tried to let it come to me, and it just didn't come today. Obviously this is not the way I wanted to go out."

Old Dominion continue their Cinderella run against the third-seeded Baylor Bears (25-7) in the second round on Saturday in New Orleans.

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1 Comment

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Posted by MalcomAC on Mar 19, 2010, 07:08 AM EDT
I love my Monarchs. Well done, ODU! It's always nice to see the scruffy state school beat the wealthy private school also.
 


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