{"id":18779,"date":"2017-01-05T08:03:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-05T08:03:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=18779"},"modified":"2017-01-05T08:03:29","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T08:03:29","slug":"steve-vasturia-leads-notre-dame-upset-louisville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/steve-vasturia-leads-notre-dame-upset-louisville.html","title":{"rendered":"Steve Vasturia leads Notre Dame to upset of Louisville"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Steve Vasturia leads Notre Dame to upset of Louisville<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Steve Vasturia hasn\u2019t cooled off.<\/span><\/p>\n

The senior scored a career-high 24 points en route to leading No. 21 Notre Dame to a 77-70 victory over No. 9 Louisville on Wednesday night. This was fresh off his game-winning 3 against Pitt on Saturday with 2.6 seconds left to open conference play. The Fighting Irish are now 2-0 in the ACC and Rick Pitino is 0-7 all-time in South Bend.<\/span><\/p>\n

With 19.5 seconds left and the Irish up by three, V.J. Beachem wrestled the ball away from a Cardinals player down low and passed it to Matt Farrell. He passed to Vasturia, who hit a game-clinching jumper to give the Irish a 73-68 lead. A couple of free throws down the stretch by Farrell and Bonzie Colson iced the win.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We needed this bad after the two we gave away,” Farrell said, referencing previous losses to Top 25 teams Villanova and Purdue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coach Mike Brey laid out a few important mental factors to remember while facing a talented, athletic and long Cardinals team earlier this week. The Irish (13-2, 2-0 ACC) lead the league in fewest turnovers per game (9.2), but Louisville (12-3, 0-2 ACC) is one of the top programs in forcing them (more than 15 per game). This would be tricky given that the Irish would need to drive inside more than usual for a team that prefers to share the ball. Notre Dame did this well, despite turning the ball over 12 times. It didn\u2019t let Louisville’s defense, which frustrated Purdue (17 turnovers vs. Louisville) and Indiana (14), get to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

“You know it’s hard to score on those dudes,” Brey said. “I thought we were mentally tough where we weren\u2019t really flowing offensively, but can we go back and guard?”<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer was yes. In these first two ACC games, Pitt and Louisville did not shoot better than 39%, and the Irish ended up out-rebounding the Cardinals 38-35. On the flip side, Notre Dame shot 44%, but only had six assists, a season low. This was due to a different offensive mindset to compensate for Louisville’s size vs. Notre Dame’s toughness.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We said drive the heck out of it, that\u2019s why our assists aren\u2019t up there,” Brey said. “And because we drove, we got to the foul line, and the foul line was a great weapon for us. But this was a team you had to drive. They switched up, there’s a lot of mismatches.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Notre Dame was 22-of-25 from the free throw line and was 13-of-14 over the final 6:47.<\/span><\/p>\n

“To get to 2-0 in this league feels like you’re 6-0,” Brey said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Brey had hoped Purcell Pavilion would be \u201crockin\u201d despite Notre Dame students still being on Christmas break, his players played like it was at capacity (attendance reached 8,420). Vasturia and Farrell were constantly swarming the ball. In addition to his career night scoring, Vasturia had six rebounds, a steal and a block. Farrell tied his career high in scoring with 22 points, and Colson recorded his ninth double-double of the season with 18 points and 14 rebounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then there was Austin Torres. He only played four minutes, but they were big ones. As soon as the senior forward checked into the first half, he intercepted a Cardinals pass, handed it off to T.J. Gibbs and after Gibbs missed a layup, Torres was there for the putback to give the Irish a 17-7 lead with 11:58 to play.<\/span><\/p>\n

He finished with six points, two blocks and a steal.<\/span><\/p>\n

“That\u2019s really hard to do,” Brey said. “He knows who he is. He embraces (his role) and his stuff tonight was such a key. His energy, scoring, flying around…he knows it’s going to be a short burst (of playing time), but man he’s a key for us.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Brey then joked Torres’ mother would probably want to meet with him this week to discuss her son getting more playing time.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was also the curious case of Beachem, who was peculiarly silent. His first shot attempt didn’t come until the first minute of the second half\u2014a jumper at the top of the key to give the Irish a 44-40 lead. He went 1-of-3 in 34 minutes. But it was his steal at the end of the game that ultimately helped finish off the Cardinals.<\/span><\/p>\n

His teammates aren’t concerned with his recent struggles–he scored six points in the conference opener against Pitt, 10 against Purdue (all in the first half), and four against Villanova.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/college\/notre-dame\/2017\/01\/04\/steve-vasturia-leads-notre-dame-upset-louisville\/96185418\/<\/span><\/div>\n

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