It was 35 years ago that the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were able to put an end to the UCLA Bruins' 88-game winning streak, and on Saturday morning the Irish were hoping to do some more streak busting against the Bruins. The only difference this time being that the Irish were looking to end their six-game losing streak.
They didn't have much luck this time around.
The game started early at Pauley Pavilion, with a 10am tip local time, but the Bruins sure didn't look to be sleepy at all, jumping out to a big lead on the Irish and never relenting. The Bruins would open up a 14-2 lead early and take a 46-30 lead into halftime. UCLA would then open up a lead as big as 80-48 with five minutes to go in the game before taking their foot of
the gas and finishing with a 89-63 rout.
The seventh straight loss is the worst streak for the Irish under Mike Brey, and the school's worst losing streak since 1993. Listening to last year's Big East Player of the Year, Luke Harangody, there probably isn't much reason to be optimistic about Notre Dame's chance to pick itself up off the mat and dust themselves off.
"I had a hard time getting it out of the post and made some mistakes early," said Harangody. "We didn't fight at all. They threw a couple punches and we just seemed to back down."
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Harangody would play only seven minutes in the second half and finish with five points and one rebound on 2-of-12 shooting. Ouch. His counterpart Alfred Aboya had a much easier time for it, going for 19 points and 7 rebounds while shooting 75% from the field to lead the Bruins.
