By PAUL GOTHAM
BUFFALO, N.Y. — In a game decided by two points, four plays spread throughout the first half might have made the difference.
The No. 5-seed University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish held off No. 12-seed Princeton Tigers, 60-58 in first round NCAA Tournament West Region action at Key Bank Center, Thursday.
Notre Dame’s ability to convert coming out of timeouts resulted in eight first-half points.
“You have to have high basketball I.Q. guys and experience and veterans, and we’re an older group, and we’re an older group that has won together and we’ve won together in this tournament,” Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey said. “Even though it was not pretty offensively for us, I thought we were very locked in.”
Coming out of the under-16 break, the Irish got the ball inside to Bonzie Colson who went to the free throw line for two. When Princeton took a timeout after not scoring on six straight possessions, Steve Vasturia grabbed an offensive rebound and finished.
V.J. Beachem scored coming out of the under-four timeout when ND point guard Matt Farrell led him for a layup.
“We trust our movement, trust our habits,” Beachem noted. “We just play the game with a free mind. It opens up so much for us because we aren’t thinking we need to run this play, or we need to run that play. When you’re out there playing with a free mind anybody can attack at any time.”
When Princeton trimmed Notre Dame’s seven-point lead to three, Brey called a timeout 2:08 to go in the first stanza, and Rex Pflueger knocked down a jumper to help the Irish take a six-point lead into the locker room.
“When we’re in a huddle, it refocuses us,” Pflueger noted. “Sometimes we get lost in the translation of game.
“It comes back to our veterans being in game-time situations. They understand what it takes to make it there. They know they have to make play after play.”
Farrell finished with four assists and 16 points in the first-round win.
“That’s speak to the smart guys who we have,” Farrell said of Notre Dame’s success coming out of timeouts. “You got to make adjustments. You got to think on your feet. We got guys who know the game. We got guys who are smart. We got guys who can play angles, and we got guys who know how to play together.”
ND finished with six turnovers in the win over Princeton. The Irish rank second in the nation with an assist to turnover ratio of 1.69. They will face West Virginia in the second round on Saturday. The Mountaineers lead the nation forcing more than 20 turnovers per game.
“We tried to compare them to Florida State which we played three times, playing, 11, 12 guys, getting up and getting into you,” Brey said comparing WVU to ND’s ACC rival. “The game in Tallahassee we lost. We turned it over 18 times. We did not take care of the basketball.
I don’t want to over-coach it. We have press offense that you work on back in October. You don’t want to overanalyze it too much. We need guys to be receivers. I think we can prepare in a day. I’ve got really pretty sharp guys and high basketball I.Q. guy, so I think our thing is, you know, when we get through it, are we looking to attack? Are we looking to run offense?”
Wearing of the Green
“There’s always a little buzz around our University and our place on St. Patrick’s Day,” Brey joked. “There’s no question about it. And figured I would break out the festive green for it, you know? I’ll say this, St. Patrick’s Day is great when you’re still alive in the NCAA Tournament. It sucks when you’re not.”
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