Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw said her team had it coming to them. “I thought we’ve been building up to this game now for a couple of weeks,” she said. “We just haven’t played well for a long time.CINCINNATI – Notre Dame gave Cincinnati too many second chances Saturday.
And the Bearcats made the Irish pay with a putback by Yancy Gates for the last basket of Cincinnati’s 60-58 victory Saturday at Fifth Third Arena.
Cincinnati scored 16 second-chance points to Notre Dame’s two, and the Bearcats had 18 offensive rebounds to the Irish’s four.
“We just couldn’t get a block out on a really big guy, who is hard to block out even when you get position on him,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said of the 6-foot-9 Gates’ game-winning shot off his own miss.
Irish guard Tory Jackson put up a desperation shot from his foul line that fell short as time ran out.
“We work on that shot all the time,” said Jackson, who had 12 points, three assists and two steals. “It looked like it was on point. It just came up short.”
Both teams came up short on offense in a game that had 13 lead changes and 10 ties.
Notre Dame (14-4, 3-2 Big East) shot 40.7 percent (22 of 54), and Cincinnati shot 32.3 percent (21 of 65).
The Bearcats (12-6, 3-3) were also able to neutralize Irish forward Luke Harangody.
Harangody, who picked up is fourth foul with 6:36 remaining in the game, went 5 of 20 from the floor. He finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds.
“They were bringing in a clamp down low a little bit, kind of sneaking in from the perimeter,” said Harangody, who came into the game averaging 24.9 points. “It took away my (move) to go to the basket.”
Tim Abromaitis led the Irish with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting.
Notre Dame’s shooting struggles also followed the team to the free-throw line. The Irish, who were shooting 71.7 percent (266 of 371) from the line, went 9 of 19 on free throws.
The Bearcats, who were led in scoring by Deonta Vaughn’s 15 points, went 13 of 18 at the line.
“It was very physical (game) to the point where when guys got open looks, on both teams, they were so exhausted from having to work to get open I think guys missed some open ones,” Brey said. “Maybe that even took its toll at the free-throw line for us.”
Notre Dame forward Tyrone Nash struggled the most in the loss. The junior fouled out with 1:49 to play without scoring a point or grabbing a rebound.
Forward Carleton Scott, who missed last week’s win over West Virginia after taking a leave of absence, was productive in his return.
Scott went 2 for 4 for five points and had three rebounds, a block and a steal in 15 minutes.
“We need (Nash), and I have every confidence he’ll bounce back,” said Brey, whose team plays host to No. 5 Syracuse at 7 p.m. Monday.
“I thought Carleton Scott gave us great minutes.”
