NCAA Basketball Oklahoma Sooners vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish Preview

Posted By on December 4, 2018

Preview: Oklahoma vs. Notre Dame

Two 6-1 teams face off in the Jimmy V Classic as Oklahoma and Notre Dame meet on Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Sooners enter the week winners of two straight, while the Fighting Irish are aiming for a fifth consecutive win.

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With Trae Young moving on to the NBA, Oklahoma has become a defensive team and has held its opponent to 60 points or fewer in three of the last four, including North Texas in a 73-57 win on Nov. 27. “When we defend like that and we have that stretch in the second half where we lock in defensively and stop, score, stop, score – I don’t know if (there are) too many teams in the country that can play 40 minutes with us,” senior guard Miles Reynolds told reporters after the game. Notre Dame earned its fourth consecutive win on Wednesday – a 76-74 victory over Illinois as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge – as Juwan Durham had what coach Mike Brey called a “coming-out party.” Durham had a career-high 10 points and added five blocks – all in the second half – as the 6-11 sophomore was leaned on more than usual after teammate John Mooney fouled out early.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN

ABOUT OKLAHOMA (6-1): Reynolds had a team-high 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting in 31 minutes off the bench versus North Texas. Christian James had nine – his lowest output of the season – but leads the team with 19.1 points per game and is the only Sooners player averaging more than 10. Oklahoma held the Mean Green, a team shooting 48 percent on the season, to 27.5 percent from the floor and are ranked 19th in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (37.1) on the season.

ABOUT NOTRE DAME (6-1): Guards T.J. Gibbs and D.J. Harvey both notched season highs with 19 points, with Gibbs pushing his team-leading scoring average to 13.7 points and Harvey edging his season average into double-digits at 10. Freshman point guard Prentiss Hubb added 10 points and has reached double figures in scoring in four straight, surpassing the 30-minutes played mark in each of those games as continues to be a key contributor in Notre Dame’s youth movement. Mooney, the ACC’s leader in double-doubles with three, played just 10 minutes against Illinois because of foul trouble – his lowest mark of the season.

TIP-INS

1. Tuesday marks the first meeting between these two schools.

2. The Sooners made just 17-of-33 free throws against North Texas and are shooting 65.8 percent from the free-throw line on the season.

3. This is Notre Dame’s first game away from home in 2018-19.

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