The Notre Dame Fighting Irish put their lengthy home winning streak on the line today, as they welcome the 17th-ranked Connecticut Huskies to South Bend for a Big East Conference affair.
UConn is 13-3 on the year, and the team improved to 3-2 in conference play by knocking off visiting West Virginia on Monday night in a 64-57 final. The win stopped a brief two-game slide for the Huskies, who lost road bouts at Seton Hall and Rutgers last week. So far this season, the defending national champs are 1-2 in true road games.
Notre Dame has won its last two games to move to 11-6 on the season, and the Irish currently sit at 3-1 in conference. The team's signature victories have come against Pittsburgh and Louisville, the latter coming on the road last Saturday in double-overtime. A 60-49 win over visiting South Florida earlier this week ran the team's home record this season to 10-0, and the Irish have now won 29 straight home bouts, which is the second-longest streak in school history behind the 45 straight the team won from March 4, 2006 to January 10, 2009.
Connecticut leads the all-time series with Notre Dame, 16-9, but the Irish have had the upper hand of late, winning the last three meetings.
Jeremy Lamb scored 25 points and Andre Drummond logged a double-double consisting of 20 points and 11 rebounds, and both efforts were needed by the Huskies as they out-slugged West Virginia in Hartford earlier this week, winning by seven. The Huskies knocked down 55.3 percent of their total shots in the game, but just 3-of-10 three-point tries found the bottom of the net. The Mountaineers committed a mere seven turnovers on the night, but they shot a low 32.3 percent from the floor, and missed 18 of their 24 long-range bombs. Lamb heads a list of four players averaging double figures in scoring for the Huskies, as he nets 18.6 ppg on the strength of his 51.4 percent shooting effort, which includes a team-high 38 treys. Drummond scores 10.3 ppg, but his worth is truly measured by his work on the glass as he grabs 7.3 rpg to help UConn come up with a rebounding margin of +5.8. The Huskies are outscoring the opposition this season by an average of 9.1 rpg, but that figure drops considerably against Big East competition.
Notre Dame got productive outings from three of its starters in the recent win over USF, as Jack Cooley, Scott Martin and Jerian Grant combined for 45 points, 21 rebounds and nine assists in helping preserve the team's long home winning streak. The Irish drained 48 percent of their field goal attempts, compared to just 38.2 percent for the Bulls, which included a dreadful 1-of-13 showing from beyond the arc. UND won the game despite being outrebounded (35-29) and outscored in the paint (36-30) -- areas coach Mike Brey would certainly like to see improve as the team looks ahead to this game against UConn, and beyond. Grant is the team's active scoring leader, as he checks in with 13.4 ppg, while Eric Atkins (12.7 ppg) and Cooley (10.7 ppg) round out its double-digit scorers. Cooley spearheads Notre Dame's work on the glass with 8.4 rpg, while Grant serves as its primary playmaker with 4.5 apg. Overall, the Fighting Irish are averaging 70.5 ppg while permitting 64.2 ppg.
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