Tag: Damari Monsanto

Mike Brey, Nate Laszewski and Cormac Ryan speak after loss

The Irish seem almost speechless about this season.

SOUTH BEND – Wake Forest took Notre Dame by surprise in the second half, and you could see that after the Irish’s 81-64 loss. Sometimes, even after a tough defeat, you’ll hear plenty of words from Mike Brey and whichever players are selected to take part in the postgame news conference. This time, nobody seemed to be in a good mood. While Brey still has his usual bright and chipper moments, [autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag] and [autotag]Nate Laszewski[/autotag] looked completely at a loss as to what had just happened.

When a team already is at 10 conference losses and still has a month of games to go, it has to be deflating. That many defeats in league play will get to anybody, even a veteran-laden team like the Irish. The feeling in that locker room is obvious, and there’s no sign that anything on the court will change that feeling anytime soon.

Here is some of what was said after the loss:

 

Notre Dame falls victim to Wake Forest 3-point barrage in second half

Aren’t the Irish supposed to be the better team from downtown?

SOUTH BEND – A team like Notre Dame that is built for the perimeter only can succeed if that part of its game works. When it doesn’t, things can get very bad very quickly. What’s worse is when the opposition throws that same game back in the team’s face. That’s what Wake Forest did to defeat the Irish, 81-64.

Initially, the Irish (10-13, 2-10) took advantage of a flurry of turnovers committed by the Demon Deacons (15-9, 7-6) to go up, 16-4. Then, the Deacons worked their way back to take a one-point halftime lead. This had all the makings of a game that would go down to the wire. Then, the second half began.

Paced by the hot shooting hand of Damari Monsanto, the Deacons made five of their first six 3-point attempts in the second half to quickly expand their lead to 13. Monsanto had made three 3s late in the first half to break up a 3-point drought by both teams, so he merely picked up where he left off. He entered this game as the third-best 3-point shooter in the ACC with a percentage of .400.

Meanwhile, the Irish kept missing shots from downtown, ultimately coming up empty on their first 10 3-point attempts. By the time they got anything going from that range, and it still wasn’t much consider they finished 4 of 21 from there, it was too little and far too late.

Monsanto did the most damage for the Deacons, scoring 24 of his career-high 28 points on eight 3-pointers and also grabbing six rebounds. Tyree Appleby, one of the conference’s best passers, flirted with a triple-double with 16 points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Bobi Klintman had 10 points off the bench on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting day.

[autotag]Nate Laszewski[/autotag] was well-rounded in the losing effort with 18 points and seven rebounds. [autotag]Cormac Ryan[/autotag] scored 12, and [autotag]Marcus Hammond[/autotag] added 10. Perhaps if [autotag]Demetrius Jackson[/autotag] and [autotag]Eric Atkins[/autotag], who were in attendance for this game, were able to suit up, they could have made the game a little closer.

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