National Basketball Association
Notre Dame 87, IUPU - Ft. Wayne 72
When: 9:00 PM ET, Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Where: Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center, South Bend, Indiana
Officials:
# Bill Covington, # William Humes, # Tim Kelly
Attendance:
7204
By The Sports Xchange
SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Bonzie Colson remained on his scoring and rebounding roll, and so too did No. 23 Notre Dame.
The junior captain delivered a sixth-straight double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds as the Irish moved to 9-0 with an 87-72 victory over Fort Wayne at Purcell Pavilion on Tuesday.
As good as Colson has been to date, he returned with another solid effort on both ends. As much confidence as he's playing with, it gives his teammates that much more of a boost and reason to believe when he gets on another of these rolls.
"It's staying composed and coming to play," Colson said. "We had a little adversity tonight and stayed strong."
A lot of that is credit to No. 35 in Irish blue and gold.
"When he gets going early, not only is it great for him, it's great for all of us," said senior captain V.J. Beachem. "When he hits his first two or three, that's when we know it's going to be a big night for him."
Steve Vasturia led the Irish with 21 points.
Mo Evans led the Mastodons (7-3) with 25 points. Fort Wayne got as close as nine in a second half after Notre Dame led by as 27 points earlier in the half.
Much of the comeback in front of a crowd where a good chunk of it had already headed for the exits with 10 minutes left had to do with Evans. He got going early in the second half after struggling the first 20 minutes. He made four 3-pointers and scored 21 points in the second half to give the Mastodons some life.
"He's a really good player," said Fort Wayne coach Jon Coffman. "He excels in difficult situations. The guy just rises to the occasion."
Yet so does this Notre Dame team, which stayed poised instead of panicking while feeling very little pressure. Tuesday's huddles late in the second half were like those late last month against Northwestern when Notre Dame trailed by six points with six minutes to play in a game it eventually won.
The Irish were matter-of-fact that night in Barclays Center, and were again at Purcell Pavilion. Let's do this better. Let's be better on defense. And let's continue to make free throws, which the top-shooting team in the country did down the stretch, going 16-of-19 in the second half and 20-of-23 for the game.
"The tone is a little bit of, 'We're fine,'" said Irish coach Mike Brey. "It's just a mature group."
A group that learned something from a game that looked long over, until it wasn't.
"We just gotta learn from this and learn not to let up," said sophomore guard Rex Pflueger. "We just buckled down on defense."
The Irish are off to their best start in Brey's 17-year tenure and their best start since opening 12-0 in 1973-74 under former coach Digger Phelps, who was in his usual baseline seat for this one.
Just over 48 hours after playing perhaps the worst team on its schedule -- North Carolina A&T, a game it won by a Purcell Pavilion record 54 points -- Notre Dame faced perhaps the toughest team on its non-conference schedule.
Fort Wayne made everyone pay attention earlier this year with a victory over then-No. 3 Indiana. The Mastodons had the Irish's attention.
And the Irish were ready. Really ready.
NOTES: Notre Dame's Bonzie Colson earned his first Atlantic Coast Conference player of the week honors after averaging 17 points and 14 rebounds in two games last week. That included a career-high 17 rebounds against Iowa. ... Colson entered Tuesday's game having posted five-straight double-doubles. ... Irish starting PF Martinas Geben had fouled out of the previous two contests. ... Notre Dame entered Tuesday's game as the best foul-shooting team in the nation at 85.8 percent. ... Fort Wayne earned votes Monday in the national polls for the second straight week. This is the latest in school history that the Mastodons have appeared in the "also received votes" category. ... Fort Wayne took a six-game win streak into Tuesday's game, where it's now 0-4 all-time.
Top Game Performances
| IUPU - Ft. Wayne |
|
Notre Dame |
|
Mo Evans 25 |
Scoring |
Steve Vasturia 21 |
|
Mo Evans 3 |
Assists |
Matt Farrell 6 |
|
John Konchar 9 |
Rebounds |
Bonzie Colson 14 |
|
Mo Evans 3 |
Free Throws Made |
Steve Vasturia 8 |
|
John Konchar 3 |
Steals |
V.J. Beachem 1 |
|
John Konchar 2 |
Blocks |
V.J. Beachem 2 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| IUPU - Ft. Wayne
|
72 |
45.9 |
8-23 |
8-8 |
11 |
37 |
4 |
5 |
15 |
| Notre Dame
|
87 |
41.8 |
11-35 |
20-23 |
20 |
35 |
3 |
6 |
6 |
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