out to a 7-0 lead, highlighted by a couple of dunks from senior forward m artinas Geben.
up a lot of stuff and it was giving us a lot of new looks that we haven’t seen this year, but it was great just to get out there and get another [win] before we hit m aui.”
Unwilling to take their opponent for granted, the i rish (3-0) immediately jumped
From there, c olson began to take over on both sides of the court, as a P preseason a lla merican scored nine points while blocking three shots to help extend notre d ame’s lead to 30-8. c hicago s tate (13) was unable to generate any flow offensively, and the i rish continued to consistently
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stretch the lead thanks to some hot shooting from Gibbs, Farrell and h arvey. Gibbs, Farrell and c olson all reached double figures by halftime, and the i rish went into the locker room with a comfortable 56-29 lead. a ny chance that the c ougars felt they might have at making a comeback in the second half was squashed by Gibbs, as the new Jersey
product scored eight straight points to make it 66-41 at the 15:26 mark. Gibbs finished 8-of-11 from the field, including 4-of-7 from three-point range, and will be an important key for the team this season according to i rish head coach m ike b rey.
“T.J. is really confident, and i think m atty and b onzie have done a good job of getting him confident — continually letting him know, even back in the summer, how important he’s going to be,” b rey said.
“b ut certainly now, with 17 pounds off him, he’s in shape enough to play those extended minutes. i thought he’d be a good shooter for us … so we just gotta continue to grow him, and i think he heads to [ h awaii] pretty confident.”
notre d ame wore out c hicago s tate for the rest of the game, and relied on its bench to mostly play the latter part of the second half, giving increased minutes to players like h arvey, who finished 5-of-8 from the field and is expected to play a substantial role as a freshman for the team this season.
“he’s really a gifted guy,” b rey said. “Tonight may have been the most important for him — he gets 22 minutes, and [in his third game] he gets into a little bit of a scoring rhythm. That’s the one thing i think he can do for us — obviously he rebounds too — but it was a great night for him and he’s very important for us, and our seniors know
he’s important, so they keep helping me bring him along.”
“The sky’s the limit for him,” Gibbs said of h arvey. “he’s starting to get it; it’s starting to click for him. i ’m excited for him and proud of him and i just hope he keeps working and keeps getting there.”
Junior guard Fred s ims Jr. led c hicago s tate with 19 points and redshirt-senior guard Jelani Pruitt had 16. a ll in all, notre d ame shot 62.1 percent while holding c hicago s tate 36.1 percent, and while spectators may focus on the offense eclipsing 100 points, Farrell, who had five steals, said the defensive effort is what really gets the team going.
“We got smart guys — we defend as a unit,” Farrell said.
“We had a lot of steals today, we’re talking, we’re communicating a lot better on defense. We know we’re not a finished product, but we know how efficient we are offensively, and we think that our defense helps our offense. i f we can get our defense going and we get stops, we can have a lot of fun playing.”
Up next for n otre d ame is a trip to h awaii, as the i rish will compete in the m aui i nvitational next week. The team will play tournament host c haminade in monday’s opening round, and either L s U or m ichigan on Tuesday.
Contact Joe Everett at jeveret4@nd.edu
