SOUTH BEND – Notre Dame coach Mike Brey didn’t know what to say to his team after being thoroughly beaten by Georgetown in one of the worst home losses in recent memory for the Irish.
“I told them I don’t have much to say because I don’t know where to start,” Brey said after No. 24 Notre Dame’s 63-47 loss on Monday night. “So let’s get together at 8 a.m. and let’s figure it out. And I don’t know what we’ll do at 8 a.m. We might watch film. We might practice real hard.”
Otto Porter scored 19 points and Georgetown held the Irish (15-4, 3-3 Big East) to a season-low 35 percent shooting, handing Notre Dame its third loss in four games. It was a dismal night for Notre Dame’s offense, which recorded season lows in points, field goal percentage (35 percent) and assists (11).
The Irish went on long stretches without scoring in both halves, while Georgetown (13-4, 3-3) shot 53 percent from the field.
It was Notre Dame’s third Big East home loss over its past 24 conference home games. The game was reminiscent of last season’s 59-41 win by Georgetown over the Irish in Washington, when the Hoyas held Notre Dame to its lowest point total in nearly four years by limiting the Irish to 33 percent shooting.
“I think this league is crazy,” Georgetown coach John Thompson III said. “I think our defensive effort was really good today. We were on the same page and we made things difficult for them. That’s just hard work. There’s no magic formula here. Our guys just sucked it up and played hard today.”
Jerian Grant led Notre Dame with 13 points while Pat Connaughton had 12 points and Jack Cooley added 10 points with 10 rebounds.
The Irish set the tone with their offensive woes early. The Hoyas got off to a 10-4 run over the first 4:44 of the game, fueled by threes from Porter and Jabril Trawick, while the Irish hit just one of their first five field goal attempts.
Notre Dame scored only eight points over the first 10 minutes, hitting just three of its first 10 shots from the field. Cooley hit just one of his first four attempts.
Notre Dame came into the second half with energy, reeling off a 10-0 run early to cut the margin to 40-37. But the Irish then went scoreless over a 7-minute stretch, as the Hoyas went on an 18-0 spurt and put the game out of reach.
