Notre Dame Basketball Drops 3rd in Row, Loses to Duke: The Highlights

Notre Dame spotted Duke an early lead on Monday and was never able to fully recover.  The Irish feel behind early and trailed by 12 at the half before making several second half runs.  They were never able to get closer than 62-63 before eventually falling 74-84 to drop their third game in a row and fourth in five games.

The Irish continued their downward trend in free throw shooting.  After leading the nation in free throw shooting earlier  this year, Notre Dame has struggled at the line in ACC play.  Monday night they connected on just 19 of 28 attempts.  Duke, meanwhile, nailed an impressive 23 of 24 attempts.

Notre Dame was cold from three point range as well Monday night hitting just 7 of 21 attempts.  Steve Vasturia especially struggled shooting the ball again tonight missing all five of this three point attempts and making just one of nine attempts overall.  He ended the night with just 7 points after putting up just five points in Saturday’s loss to Georgia Tech.

VJ Beachem meanwhile continued his up and down season with a strong performance.  Beachem led the Irish with 20 points but struggled mightily on the defensive end of the floor.  Beachem scored a career high 30 points last week in a win over Syracuse before posting just 3 points in the loss to UVA and then bouncing back Saturday with 23 against Tech.

With Monday night’s loss, the Irish have now lost three in row – UVA, Georgia Tech, and now Duke.  After winning their first five ACC games, Notre Dame sits at 6-4 with a road contest against North Carolina on the horizon this coming weekend.