Melina Myers, USA TODAY Sports
Notre Dame Falls Late Again After Questionable Calls
It has been a rough season for Notre Dame, who fell to 11-8 on the season and 2-6 in ACC play after dropping an 85-84 game at No. 5 Florida State. This was Notre Dame's four conference loss by three points or less, and five overall loss by such a small margin.
This loss, however, had to hurt a little bit more. Beating No. 5 Florida State on the road, after battling back from a double-digit deficit, would have been a major resume builder for the struggling Irish. Instead, Notre Dame dropped a one-point game due in part to a number of extremely questionable calls by the ACC officiating crew.
The calls brought out an extremely rare public rebuke from head coach Mike Brey.
This is not typical Brey, who is clearly frustrated by the fact his team received several poor calls, which ended any chance for his team to finish off what had been a miraculous comeback.
Trailing 85-79 with just over :20 seconds left in the game, the Irish clawed all the way back to 85-84 after a Prentiss Hubb three-pointer, which was immediately followed by a Juwan Durham steal of the inbounds pass, and the veteran big man immediately put the ball in the basket.
Notre Dame had four chances to win it at the end after Durham made another steal, but none of the shots went down and no foul was called on Durham at the rim.
Hubb led the Irish with 24 points, marking the third time in the last five games he's topped the 20-point mark. Durham and John Mooney each had 16 points, although Mooney's 13-game streak of double-doubles came to an end. TJ Gibbs scored 12, but shot just 4-12 from the floor, and Dane Goodwin chipped in 12 points off the bench.
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