Notre Dame Basketball: Irish Defeat Demon Deacons

A 90-80 win over Wake Forest on Wednesday may not seem like much, but Notre Dame needed it to keep the pressure on the rest of the ACC. The Irish (12-8, 3-6) trailed the Demon Deacons (9-11, 2-8) by five at halftime, but a second half in which they …

A 90-80 win over Wake Forest on Wednesday may not seem like much, but Notre Dame needed it to keep the pressure on the rest of the ACC. The Irish (12-8, 3-6) trailed the Demon Deacons (9-11, 2-8) by five at halftime, but a second half in which they scored 54 points and shot 53.1 percent from the field allowed them to come back and pull out the double-digit victory.

After breaking a 43-all tie with a layup from Andrein White, the Deacons never led again after Rex Pflueger hit a 3-pointer to put the Irish in front. Though Notre Dame saw a 12-point lead get whittled down to three, that was as close as it got the rest of the way.

T.J. Gibbs led the Irish with 23 points. John Mooney got back in the double-double column with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Together, the two combined to make all 13 of their free throws. Notre Dame got good bench production from Nate Laszewski and Dane Goodwin, who had 18 and 14 points, respectively.