Notre Dame Men's Basketball Looks To Stay Unbeaten Against Lipscomb

Notre Dame men’s basketball plays its fourth consecutive home game to open the season when it hosts Lipscomb Friday night. Notre Dame has opened the season with three consecutive wins for the first time since the 2017-2018 team that opened 6-0 after winning the Maui Invitational.

Where: Notre Dame, Ind – Purcell Pavilion
When: Wednesday, Nov. 16 – 7:00 PM EST
Network: ACC Network Extra
Radio: Notre Dame Radio Network – WSBT 960 AM in South Bend, Tony Simeone PBP

Let's take a look at today’s matchup:

NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH (3-0, 0-0 ACC)

Head Coach: Mike Brey (475-259 at Notre Dame (23rd season), 574-311 28th season overall)

Notre Dame downed Southern Indiana 82-70 Wednesday in a game the Irish led from start to finish. In fact, they have not trailed at any point in each of their last two games after playing from behind most of the night in their season-opening win over Radford.

Trey Wertz scored 20 points to lead five starters in double figures. Wertz has been in double figures in all three games this season. Nate Laszewski also notched a double-double for the third time in as many games with 18 points and 10 rebounds.

Freshman guard JJ Starling has found his groove over the past two games. He was 3 for 7 for 9 points in his college debut against Radford, but he has been in double figures the last two games after scoring 10 against Southern Indiana.

Probable Irish Starting Lineup

G JJ Starling - 6-3, Fr. - 12.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG
G Cormac Ryan - 6-5, 5th – 12.0 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.3 APG
G Dane Goodwin - 6-6, 5th – 14.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 2.0 APG
G Trey Wertz - 6-5, 5th. - 17.7 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 3.3 APG
F Nate Laszewski - 6-10, 5th – 20.0 PPG, 10.7 RPG, 3 BLK

Lipscomb Bison (2-1, 0-0 ASUN Conf.)

Head Coach: Lennie Acuff (47-48 in 4th year at the school, 501-271 in 36th season overall)

Lipscomb brings a 2-1 record into Friday’s game after a dramatic 77-75 win over Belmont. After Belmont tied the game with 11.7 second left in regulation, Lipscomb got the game winning shot with just one second to play to give them their first win over Belmont in five years.

Lipscomb also has a home win over Cambellsville-Harrodsburg after a season-opening road 85-77 loss to South Dakota.

Opponent Projected Starting Lineup (2021-2022 Stats)

G Trae Benham- Stats – 11.7 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 1.3 APG
F Matthew Schner- Stats – 12.3 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 1.6 APG
G Derrin Boyd - Stats – 10.7 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.3 APG
G Will Pruitt - Stats – 14.0 PPG, 7.7 RPG, 3.0 APG
C Ahsan Asadullah - Stats – 5.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.0 APG

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

Lipscomb shares the ball well as a team. They have 46 assists on 97 made field goals through two games and Pruitt and Asadullah are each averaging 3.0 assists per game. 6-7 forward Jacob Ognacevic has not started any of the Bison’s first three games, but he is their leading scorer at 18.0 points per game. Lipscomb is also averaging 8.3 3-pointers per game.

Wertz is off to a hot start, averaging 17.7 points through three games for the Irish. His best season at Notre Dame was his first in 2020-2021 when he averaged 8.3 points. He averaged 4.0 points last season. Notre Dame has been very Notre Dame so far this season. The Fighting Irish are also averaging 8.3 3s per game and shooting them at nearly a 40% clip. They have a 4.3 to 1 assist to turnover ratio with Wertz leading the way with 10 assists. All five starters are averaging double figure scoring and are averaging at least 32 minutes a game. Freshman Ven-Allen Lubin (21.1) is the only player off the bench averaging more than 2.4 minutes a game.

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