Mooney's 16th double-double, bench propel Irish past Deacons

John Mooney regained his double-double touch and T.J. Gibbs scored a team-high 23 points as Notre Dame held off Wake Forest in the second half Wednesday for a 90-80 Atlantic Coast Conference victory. Mooney, who had 12 double-doubles in a row before Florida State held him to five rebounds in an 85-84 ACC loss Saturday, finished with 19 points and 13 rebounds after a slow start as Mike Brey's Fighting Irish (12-8, 3-6 ACC) broke a two-game losing streak and won their first ACC game this season at Purcell Pavilion.

Reserve Nate Laszewski scored a season-high 18 points and fellow reserve Dane Goodwin 14 as the Irish bench outscored the Demon Deacons, 32-23. Brandon Childress, who missed Wake Forest’s overtime loss Sunday to Virginia with a leg injury, returned to score a game-high 24 points. Seven-foot center Olivier Sarr scored 18 points despite foul trouble and Isaiah Mucius added 13 for Danny Manning’s Demon Deacons (9-11, 2-8) who lost their third straight.

Notre Dame shot a torrid 53% in the second half (17-for-32) while forging a 12-point lead, 68-56, with 8:45 remaining. But the Demon Deacons closed to within 77-74 with 3:35 forcing Brey to call a timeout. A 3-pointer by Laszewski and a three-point play by Gibbs helped the Irish hold off the Demon Deacons. Childress scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the first half as the Demon Deacons took a 41-36 halftime lead. Coming off a 65-63 overtime loss to Virginia, Wake Forest hit eight of its first 11 shots (73%) before finishing at 53% (16 of 30).

Mooney, who entered the game with 15 double-doubles, didn’t have a rebound until 9:58 remained in the first half and got his first basket 19 seconds later. He finished with eight points and six rebounds to lead the Irish, who hit just one of their first seven shots (14%) before finishing at 35% (12 of 34). Mooney’s 3-point play tied the game at 43-43 with 17:17 to go. He had his double-double with his 10th rebound with 16:52 left before Rex Pflueger hit a 3-pointer to give the Irish the lead, 46-45, with 16:32 remaining. Gibbs then hit three free throws to stretch the Irish lead to 49-45.

Then with Mooney and fellow big man Juwan Durham resting, the Irish stretched the lead to eight, 54-46, on a drive by Laszewski with 14:27 remaining. A Gibbs floater in the lane made it 60-51 with 11:31 when Manning called a timeout. Notre Dame eventually grew the lead to 68-56 with 9:56 left on a Gibbs 3-pointer.

BIG PICTURE

Wake Forest: The Demon Deacons, who entered the game hitting just 42% from the floor, were hot in the first half but couldn’t maintain their accuracy, hitting just four of their first 10 shots in the second half while Notre Dame took control with a 24-10 run.

Notre Dame: The Fighting Irish entered the game just 2-6 in the ACC with five of the losses coming by five points or less – two by one point, including last Saturday’s 85-84 loss at No. 5 Florida State that had Brey questioning the officiating and earning the school a $20,000 fine from the league.

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