Dec. 31, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – In order to have a successful season of Big East play, the Irish will have to rely heavily on their bench.
Today, the Notre Dame bench proved it is ready for Big East competition. The Irish bench contributed 41 points in the 85-67 win over the Peacocks.
Freshman Ivan Kartelo turned in a season high 11 points for the Irish. The freshman has spent the first part of the season trying to adjust to American style basketball and rehab a nagging injury. He also snagged four rebounds.
“Ivan had 11 points,” Irish coach Matt Doherty said. “He is starting to look stronger out there. We are working on some power moves with him around the goal. He has also been good about taking it strong to the hoop.
Junior Marin Ingelsby also turned in an impressive performance off the bench. The guard had ten points and helped the team preserve another victory.
“That is nice,” Doherty responded to having 41 points off the bench. “I didn’t know how many we had off the bench. It is nice because we have a lot of guys getting quality minutes.”
Sophomore sensation David Graves played just 18 minutes. He suffered a deep bruise on his thigh early in the first half. Graves still managed to score ten points.
While St. Peter’s did a fairly decent job of denying Troy Murphy the ball, the team could hardly restrain him on the boards. He grabbed 15 rebounds on top of his 17 points.
Doherty seemed most impressed with the small amount of turnovers for his team. The team had just 13 turnovers which is one shy of the season low. The team had only 12 turnovers against Valparaiso earlier this season.
Notre Dame faces Loyola Marymount on Sunday in its final non-conference game of the season.
“Anything can happen,” Doherty said. “Loyola Marymount has some good athletes. Why they haven’t played well, I don’t know. I don’t want them to fix that problem two days from now.”
The Irish start Big East play on Wednesday when they take on Connecticut.