Feb. 08--DURHAM, N.C. -- As the final minutes mercifully ticked away on the most lopsided loss in Mike Brey's tenure at Notre Dame, the same blank look came over the face of everyone on Notre Dame's bench -- helpless, shellshocked and exhaustively defeated.
Athletic director Jack Swarbrick sat behind the bench with his elbow on his knee, resting his face in his palm and staring out into space.
Such was the effect of Duke's 90-60 smackdown of Notre Dame at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Irish's worst loss since 1999.
"I had to look at the stat sheet and make sure it only counted as one loss, because that was a thorough beating," Brey said. "It was one of those where you're hanging on for dear life."
Notre Dame had none on Saturday. The Irish scored the first six points. Then Duke proceeded to laugh at the Irish for the rest of the game in shooting an astounding 81 percent in the first half.
Before the No. 10 Irish (21-4, 9-3 ACC) could adjust their ears to the vocal shrills and insults of the Cameron crazies, No. 4 Duke (20-3, 7-3) had build a 30-point lead less than 16 minutes into the game. The Blue Devils built most of that with leading scorer Jahlil Okafor (20 points) on the bench in foul trouble. Matt Jones came off the bench to score 17 points while Justise Winslow ate up Notre Dame on the interior with 19 points and 11 rebounds.
"I feel like 80 percent from the field in the first half is something that just doesn't happen regardless of how good the defense is," guard Jerian Grant said. "Eighty percent just doesn't happen."
It's easy to look at Duke's eye-popping offensive statistics as the prime reason for the destruction, but Brey, Notre Dame's players and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski credited the Blue Devils defense with being the prime catalyst in Saturday's laugher. The debacle came after the Irish had toppled Duke 77-73 on Jan. 28 at home.
Grant had possibly his worst game of the season, scoring just seven points on 3 of 10 shooting while going 1-for-7 from the free-throw line. Blue Devils guard Quinn Cook, Grant's friend from high school, did a commendable job pressuring Grant and daring Grant to use his left hand to drive into the lane.
"They threw a lot of different things at me," Grant said. "It was frustrating. I let my body language get to me and it affected the rest of the team."
Notre Dame shot just 40 percent from the field, well below its season average of 52 percent. Meanwhile, its Swiss Cheese defense continued to hemorrhage. The loud, bonkers crowd kept Notre Dame from regaining composure.
"For as many atmospheres as we've been in, it probably knocked (the players) back on their heels, just looking at them a little bit," Brey said.
Sophomore guard Demetrius Jackson (11 points) got so hot that he tore into teammates during a first-half timeout, sparing no one, not even senior leaders Grant and Pat Connaughton. If there was one positive takeaway from Saturday, Brey said, it was that Jackson took a step forward in the leadership department.
Notre Dame will need as much leadership as it can muster to bounce back before playing at Clemson on Tuesday.
So far in their short ACC tenure, Brey said, the Irish have enjoyed traveling south for games.
"In the Big East, we were always flying from snow to snow," Brey said. "Now I come down here in the Carolinas, I see the pine trees, I hear the Southern accents and I get sweet tea. It has been really nice.
"Until today."
chine@tribpub.com
Twitter @ChristopherHine
