O'Connor, Terriers almost steal win from Irish

Posted: 01/04/2006 - by

SOUTH BEND, IN – Notre Dame survived a potential buzzer-beating three-pointer by Wofford to post a 74-71 win over the Terriers Friday night in the Joyce Center.

Wofford (4-8) erased a 10-point halftime deficit to pull within one at 72-71 with 46 seconds remaining in the game. The Terriers were down 72-67 with 55.7 seconds to play when Howard Wilkerson hit a pair of free throws to pull Wofford within three points.

Former St. Albert phenom Matt O’Connor stole the inbounds pass by Notre Dame (9-2) and fed Drew Gibson who hit Wilkerson for a lay-up to bring Wofford within one point at 72-71. With the shot clock running down, Notre Dame’s Chris Quinn missed a jumper and Torin Francis grabbed the rebound and was fouled. He hit both free throws to give the Irish a 74-71 lead. Wilkerson took a three-pointer as the clock expired and the shot hit off the front of the rim and bounced away.

Wilkerson finished with a game-high 27 points and posted his first double-double of the season with 10 points. Shane Nichols finished with 19 points for Wofford while Tyler Berg finished with 10.

Notre Dame was led by Russell Carter who scored 16 points. Francis finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Notre Dame built a 42-32 halftime lead by hitting 50 percent of its first half field goals while the Terriers managed just 39 percent of 12 of 31 shooting. But the Terriers surged in the second half, outscoring the Irish 39-32 while making 15 of 27 field goal attempts including four of seven 3-point attempts.

Wofford head coach Mike Young was impressed with the frontline play of Berg and Wilkerson.

“Those Notre Dame (forwards) are legitimate Big East post players,” said Young. “Torin Francis will make a lot of money playing this game. And we went down there time and time again to Berg and Wilkerson in the post and they made play after play.”

Wofford will return home for its final non-conference game of the year on Monday night when it hosts King College of Bristol, TN at 7 pm in the Benjamin Johnson Arena.

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