Notre Dame senior quickly bounces back
Takes control in 80-49 victory vs. Stetson
Garrick Sherman’s first game this season was one to forget.
He fouled out and scored just three points Friday in No. 21 Notre Dame’s season-opening win. Fortunately for this fifthyear senior, he only had to wait two days to erase the memory of that performance.
Sherman had 15 points and nine rebounds, and Jerian Grant also scored 15 points to lead the Fighting Irish to an 80-49 victory against Stetson Sunday at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center in Notre Dame, Ind.
“This was a good bounceback game [Sunday],” Sherman said. “It was good that we had a quick game. It was easy to get it out of my mind quick.”
Sherman was 7 of 11 from the field against Stetson, after making just 1 of 7 attempts against Miami of Ohio two days earlier.
“Friday night wasn’t a great one,” Irish coach Mike Brey said. “We laughed about it. He’s been through it all, and right before tip, I said, ‘Would you just have fun today?’ I just wanted him to laugh a little bit.”
Pat Connaughton added 10 points for the Irish (2-0) and senior point guard Eric Atkins finished with eight points, leaving him five short of 1,000 for his career.
Reserve Brian Pegg led the Hatters (0-2) with 13 points and Willie Green added eight points and nine rebounds.
The Irish took a double-digit lead less than five minutes in as they improved to 48-0 at home in November under Brey.
After scoring just 15 points in the first half of their seasonopening loss Friday at Clemson, the Hatters managed 21 against Notre Dame as they started 1 of 5 from the field with four turnovers in the first five minutes. That fueled a 12-0 run that put the Irish out front, 17-3, with 10 points coming off Stetson turnovers.
“We were so efficient in the first half,” Brey said. “We were solid defensively, keeping them to one-and-done. That’s how we play. That’s our program.”
The Hatters, who lost over 64 percent of their scoring from 2012-13 and are still looking for some offensive cohesiveness with nine new faces on the roster, got some help from their reserves. Pegg, a redshirt freshman, entered the game after Notre Dame’s run and delivered two three-point plays in an 8-0 run to get the deficit down to six points, seven minutes into the game. But that was as close as Stetson got the rest of the way.
More ACC
Massachusetts 86, Boston College 73: Chaz Williams scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half to lift Massachusetts to a season-opening win against intrastate rival Boston College at TD Garden in Boston.
Top 25 men
Kentucky 93, Northern Kentucky 63: Julius Randle scored 22 points en route to another double-double that led top-ranked Kentucky (2-0) to a blowout of visiting Northern Kentucky (0-2).
Top 25 women
Penn State 78, Fordham 61: Maggie Lucas had 23 points and six rebounds to lead No. 13 Penn State past visiting Fordam. Lucas had four 3-pointers and moved past Michigan State’s Lindsay Bowen into second place on the Big Ten Conference’s career 3-pointers list (297). She scored at least 20 points for the 48th time in her career.
Duke 70, California 58: Chelsea Gray had 22 points on 7 of 12 shooting as No. 1 Duke defeated host No. 9 California.
Kentucky 96, Wagner 57: DeNesha Stallworth had 18 points and 13 rebounds to help No. 7 Kentucky rout Wagner in New York.
Maryland 89, Loyola, Md. 53: Alyssa Thomas had 14 points and 12 rebounds and Alicia DeVaughn added 14 points for No. 8 Maryland in this in-state matchup.
Iowa 97, Dayton 93: Bethany Doolittle was 10 of 13 from the field and scored 22 points for Iowa in a Hawkeye Challenge victory against No. 14 Dayton.
Purdue 63, Ball State 57: KK Houser matched her career high with 21 points for No. 18 Purdue in the season opener for both teams in West Lafayette, Ind.
Oklahoma State 73, TexasArlington 35: Tiffany Bias had 14 points, 9 assists and 6 steals for No. 21 Oklahoma State in a win against visiting Texas-Arlington.
South Carolina 68, Louisiana Tech 45: Aleighsa Welch had 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead No. 22 South Carolina past visiting Louisiana Tech.