This game drained me mentally as well as physically and I can't believe how lucky we were to squeeze out another win against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Yelling, sweating, near vomiting, almost giving up, and having to hold back from throwing things through the TV were all things I was guilty of during this one. In Samardo we trust is all I'm saying! Samardo had a career high 36 points and fouled out 4 different ND players throughout this game. As if that wasn't enough he went 16-19 from the FT line, had 6 rebounds, and 2 blocks. He was without a doubt the only reason we managed to luckily steal that game from ND. I'm so excited that Samardo has been playing lights out this year and with this only being his sophomore year, I can't wait to see what the future holds! The great play of Jared Swopshire also continued in this game with him contributing 12 points and 9 rebounds! I love the way he is developing and should end up being huge for us in the long run. I still can't believe that we didn't dominate this ND team who was lacking the 24 PPG output of the top scorer, Luke Harangody. Somehow they were able to break our press easily, get open for easy 3's, and penetrate in the paint. None of these things should have happen considering our size, depth, and match-up advantages. I have to give the Irish credit for playing an unbelievable game! In the end a win is a win and after painfully watching this game I'm going to sit back and breathe a sigh of relief and hope we get back on track Sat. against Depaul. Any thoughts?
This was a game the Cards would not have won earlier in the season when we could not finish tight games. We are showing signs of tenacity at the end of games. Granted, it should never have been this close, but nonetheless being able to finish is very important. I did not see the game since I was on an airplane during much of the game, but thanks to Cards Mobile app I was able to listen to the last five minutes of regulation and all but the last 23 seconds of both overtimes. I could not believe I had to turn the phone off when the plane doors closed, meaning it was not until an hour later that I found out the Cards had won. Samardo had a career game and to be success the rest of the season we need to see solid games from him every game. You are right on target about Swopshire's play in this game and the latter part of the season.
ReplyDeleteYep a scary but good game that yet again keeps us in the NCAA tournament hunt! Next up is Depaul on the road! Gotta get this one considering our final 4 games are against Georgetown, UCONN, Marquette, and Syracuse which will all be very tough games! Go Cards!!!
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