SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame’s experience and raucous home crowd were too much for eighth-ranked Kentucky and its heralded freshmen.
Junior guards Eric Atkins and Jerian Grant paced the Fighting Irish to a 64-50 victory Thursday night.
Atkins led the Fighting Irish with 16 points, Grant had 13 points and 6 assists and Jack Cooley added 13 points and 11 rebounds.
“The way our guards were controlling things, I didn’t have to do a lot of coaching,” Notre Dame Coach Mike Brey said.
“Those guys were coaching the team. Eric Atkins running things, calling sets. When you have a veteran backcourt doing that, I just don’t want to get in their way too much.”
Notre Dame outplayed Kentucky (4-2) inside during the first half and held the Wildcats to a season-low 40 percent shooting for the game.
The Irish shot 48 percent, the best anyone has against Kentucky this season.
Kentucky Coach John Calipari said his team didn’t compete.
“They beat us to balls. They beat us around the basket. We didn’t compete. We didn’t execute. We didn’t play together. There’s a lot of things we didn’t do,” he said.
Julius Mays led Kentucky with 16 points and Nerlens Noel had 10.
“We came out a little shellshocked and we started playing their game, which is slow down and half-court. I think we’re more of an up-tempo team,” Mays said.
Two of Kentucky’s heralded freshmen struggled. Archie Goodwin (Sylvan Hills), who is averaging 19 points, was 1 of 7 shooting and finished with 3 points and Alex Polythress, who is averaging 18.4 points, had just 1 basket and was 1 of 3 from the free-throw line.
The Irish outrebounded Kentucky 33-27.
“We just knew that we could attack their bigs,” Cooley said. “We watched film on them and knew that they had young bigs, and we could try to outsmart them instead of out-athleticizing them. Not really change how we play but just do what we do.”
Brey said his team played with poise whenever Kentucky started rallying.
“When we don’t have good offensive stretches, we’re still able to concentrate defensively,” he said.
Notre Dame led 36-25 at halftime. The lead was around 10 points when Cameron Biedscheid, who had 10 points, hit a three-pointer to ignite a 10-0 run that included a three-pointer by Grant and another jumper by Biedscheid and gave Notre Dame a 55-35 lead.
In other games, Michael Frazier II scored 17 points and No. 8 Florida routed Marquette 82-49 in the SEC-Big East Challenge. Vander Blue led Marquette (5-2) with 20 points. ... Redshirt freshman Kyle Dranginis scored a season-high 30 points as No. 12 Gonzaga coasted to a 104-57 victory over Lewis-Clark State College in Spokane, Wash. Przemek Karnowski scored 16 points for Gonzaga (7-0).
SEC MEN
ST. JOHN’S 89,
SOUTH CAROLINA 65
NEW YORK — D’Angelo Harrison broke the 20-point mark for the sixth time in seven games this season, finishing with 26 and St. John’s beat South Carolina in the SEC-Big East Challenge. The Red Storm (5-2) led 38-26 at halftime and pulled away over the final 10 minutes, leading by as many as 28 points in the final minutes. Amir Garrett had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Red Storm while Phil Greene had 13 and JaKarr Sampson 11. Michael Cabrera had 11 points and 11 rebounds for the Gamecocks (5-2). In another SEC game, Shavon Coleman scored 14 second-half points as LSU (5-0) rallied past Seton Hall (5-2) for a 72-67 in a SEC-Big East Challenge game in Baton Rouge. Coleman was LSU’s top scorer with 18 points, and Johnny O’Bryant had 13 points and 11 rebounds. Brandon Mobley came off the bench and led the Pirates (5-2) with a career-high 17 points. Eugene Teague added 14.
Sports, Pages 26 on 11/30/2012