Irish defense does job as ND wins 2nd straight

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - Notre Dame turned to its defense when its offense sputtered.

The Fighting Irish held South Florida without a field goal for more than nine minutes late, finishing the game on a 16-6 run to win 67-57 on Sunday.

"I think our defense the last seven, eight minutes was excellent," Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. "We just kept getting back, getting stops and getting rebounds."

The Irish went more than seven minutes with just 1 field goal, a rebound basket by Luke Harangody with 9:14 left that broke a 51-51 tie. Harangody, who finished with 19 points, added another basket inside four minutes later. Then Kyle McAlarney added a 3 with 2:47 left to give the Irish a 58-51 lead. McAlarney, who also scored 19, added another 3 moments later.

"We had to kind of grind this one out tonight. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but obviously we're going to take the win," Harangody said. "They got up into us to make us have tough possessions but we got up into them."

It was an unimpressive victory for the Irish (14-10, 5-7 Big East) coming off their biggest league win ever, a 33-point win over No. 5 Louisville on Thursday. But Brey said it was probably good for the Irish to have to turn to their defense to get a victory.

"Hopefully that's something we can build on," he said.

Coach Stan Heath of USF (8-16, 3-9) was hoping the Irish would have a letdown following their win against Louisville.

"I didn't think that was the case. I think they were very motivated to play," he said.

The Irish players said they were caught off balance by USF's use of a triangle-and-two defense.

"They were kind of playing a defense we'd never seen before kinda took us out of our rhythm on our sets," Harangody said.

"So, I think that's the time where you just need to dig in on the defensive end. That's where you need to get stops and that's what we did."