SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Tory Jackson found a way to cool off South Florida and Dominique Jones.
Jackson scored nine of his 18 points in the final 5:40 and helped to hold Jones, who had been averaging 35 points a game during the Bulls’ four-game winning streak, to 1-of-8 shooting in the second half as Notre Dame beat the Bulls 65-62 on Sunday.
“Tory Jackson was flat-out fabulous,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said. “He just refused to let us lose the game.”
With South Florida (15-8, 5-6 Big East) taking the Irish out of their offense by denying them passes, Brey told the Irish they needed to drive to the basket. Jackson answered the call, repeatedly driving inside against the Bulls to rally the Irish, who had squandered away a 15-point lead in the first half.
“We just couldn’t seem to keep him out of the lane,” South Florida coach Stan Heath said.
A three-point play by Jackson with 61 seconds left gave him nine of Notre Dame’s 13 points during the decisive stretch. Luke Harangody, who finished with 19, made a pair of free throws with 4 seconds left to give the Irish a three-point lead.
Jones then missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer as the Irish (17-7, 6-5) held on.
“We had a shot and just came up a little bit short,” Heath said.
The loss ended the longest league winning streak for the Bulls since they joined the Big East in 2005. It also ended a two-game road winning streak for USF, which was coming off a 72-64 win upset of No. 7 Georgetown.
Harangody and Jones, the top two scorers in the Big East, both struggled with their shots. Jones, who leads the Big East in league games at 27 points a game, was 3-of-17 shooting, a season-low 17.6 percent.
“He just had some shots that didn’t fall and it was just an atypical Dominique Jones performance,” Heath said.
Ben Hansbrough, who added 13 points for the Irish, defended Jones for much of the game, but Jackson was on him down the stretch.
“He had good energy to get into him and make him work,” Brey said of Jackson.
Harangody, who leads the league in scoring in all games at 24.8 points a game, was 5-of-17 shooting.
“They made a point to take away Gody and jam it up and be physical with him,” Brey said.
Jackson started his strong finish when he hit a pair of free throws with 5:40 left to tie the score at 52. After he had a shot blocked, he scored on a rebound with 3:36 left to give the Irish a 56-54 lead.
“I knew I could get to the rack and I haven’t been going to the rack lately. Just been kind of settling a little bit. I felt like now was the time,” Jackson said.
Jackson drove inside to tie the game at 60, then his three-point play with 61 seconds left gave the Irish the lead.
Chris Howard led the Bulls with 23 points. Famous had 18 points and eight rebounds as the Bulls outscored the Irish 36-16 in the paint and 11-4 on second-chance points. But the Irish had a 39-32 advantage on the boards.
“They’re a good team,” Harangody said. “It’s a pretty good win for us.”
