Jan. 14, 1997
Thomas Leads Wildcats Past Irish
NOTRE DAME, Ind. -- Freshman Tim Thomas scored 18 points as No. 16 Villanova
snapped a two-game Big East Conference losing streak with a
68-57 victory over slumping Notre Dame.
Alvin Williams added 16 points for the Wildcats (13-3, 4-2 Big
East), who lost last week to Providence and Miami.
Pat Garrity scored 17 points to lead Notre Dame (7-7, 1-5),
which suffered its fourth straight loss. The Fighting Irish
have lost four of their past five meetings with Villanova.
Notre Dame trailed 33-24 at halftime, but Garrity had seven
points in a 20-12 run that opened the second half to cut the
deficit to 45-44 with 11:19 left.
"We made a good comeback in the second half," Notre Dame coach
John MacLeod said. "It gave us a kick-start, but we could not
capitalize. We hung right in there, but we missed a ton of free
throws."
The Wildcats responded with a 16-1 run behind seven points from
Williams, opening their largest lead at 61-45 on John
Celestand's layup with 5:33 left. Notre Dame would get no closer
than nine points after that.
"We knew they were going to make their runs," Thomas said. "They
cut the lead and we knew we had to just get back in it."
Villanova used a 13-1 run late in the first half to turn an
18-16 lead into a 31-17 bulge with 2:54 left.
Thomas grabbed 14 rebounds and Chuck Kornegay added 11 for
helping the Wildcats, who shot 41 percent (24-for-58) from the
field and held a 52-35 rebounding advantage.
Villanova held Garrity, the Big East's leading scorer at 22.1
points per game, to just 3-of-8 shooting from the field. As a
team, the Irish shot just 33 percent (18-for-54) and a dismal
16-for-31 (51 percent) from the line.
"Kornegay does a great job on that type of player game in and
game out," Villanova coach Steve Lappas said. "Pat is a great
inside-outside player, but we felt that Chuck could hold his own
against a player like Garrity."
VILLANOVA (68)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Thomas 33 5-14 7-10 3-14 3 3 18
Kornegay 24 1-4 3-6 5-11 0 4 5
Lawson 30 5-7 0-0 2-8 1 3 10
Celestand 34 4-11 0-3 1-4 2 2 8
Williams 35 4-11 7-9 1-2 5 3 16
Allen 15 2-3 0-0 3-7 1 4 4
Lynch 14 2-4 0-0 0-0 0 0 5
Brown 7 0-2 0-0 0-2 0 2 0
Bigus 8 1-2 0-2 0-1 0 1 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 24-58 17-30 15-49 12 22 68
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.414, FT-.567. 3-Point Goals:
3-14, .214 (Thomas 1-6, Celestand 0-2, Williams
1-4, Lynch 1-2). Team rebounds: 3. Blocked shots:
8 (Thomas 2, Lawson 2, Celestand 2, Williams,
Bigus). Turnovers: 17 (Allen 3, Lawson 3, Thomas
3, Celestand 2, Williams 2, Bigus, Brown,
Kornegay, Lynch). Steals: 9 (Thomas 5, Brown,
Kornegay, Lawson, Williams).
NOTRE DAME (57)
fg ft rb
min m-a m-a o-t a pf tp
Manner 23 2-6 4-6 1-5 0 1 8
Garrity 29 3-8 9-12 1-4 2 4 17
Young 16 1-2 0-0 2-3 1 4 2
White 32 2-10 1-3 1-5 6 2 5
Miller 28 3-8 0-0 0-3 0 3 8
Lalazarian 5 1-3 0-1 0-0 0 0 2
Bell 16 3-7 1-2 1-3 1 1 8
Dillon 11 1-1 0-1 0-0 0 3 2
Gotsch 18 1-4 0-2 1-4 0 1 2
Friel 9 0-3 1-3 0-0 1 1 1
Hickey 13 1-2 0-1 3-4 0 2 2
_______________________________________________
TOTALS 200 18-54 16-31 10-31 11 22 57
_______________________________________________
Percentages: FG-.333, FT-.516. 3-Point Goals:
5-20, .250 (Garrity 2-5, White 0-5, Miller 2-5,
Bell 1-3, Friel 0-2). Team rebounds: 4. Blocked
shots: 1 (Garrity). Turnovers: 15 (White 4,
Garrity 3, Bell 2, Dillon 2, Friel, Gotsch,
Young). Steals: 10 (Dillon 3, White 3, Manner 2,
Young 2).
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Villanova 33 35 - 68
Notre Dame 24 33 - 57
__________________________________
Technical fouls: Villanova 2 (Thomas, Team). A:
11,059. Officials: Jodi Silvester, Larry Rose,
Mike Kitts.
