By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

COACH Mike Brey looked positively at the way his Notre Dame Fighting Irish responded to the challenges they faced in pulling off their three exhibition games against local-based teams in the Bahamas Basketball Federation's 2018 Summer of Thunder over the weekend at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

After knocking off the IBA Elites 119-61 in their opener on Wednesday night and clobbering the NPBA All-Stars 111-34 on Thursday, the Fighting Irish had to dig down deep to hold off the Bahamas All-Stars 75-65 on Saturday to complete their first international trip since the 2014-15 season.

Brey, now in his 17th season as head coach of the Fighting Irish, brought to town one of his most inexperienced rosters, but he admitted that the week spent here has given him the incentive that they can get better as they prepare for the NCAA season when they leave here today.

"We played against a tough group and I knew it was going to be a challenge," Brey said. "So I am proud of our group because we were down at the half and we were struggling at times. We're young, but I think we have shown some mental toughness to at least find a win. We are learning a lot about ourselves in August."

Against a makeshift selection of players from the Bahamas All-Stars, coached by men's national head coach Mario Bowleg, the Fighting Irish trailed 39-34 at the break, but they came out of the locker room with a lot more intensity and went on a 23-12 tear in the third quarter to gain a 57-51 advantage going into the final quarter.

Although the All-Stars tried to make it close, every time they made a run, the Fighting Irish responded to stay ahead.

"I thought we changed our line-up and played smaller. We played four guards and that helped us guard them and helped us offensively," Brey said. "We went away from two big guys and it helped us both ends of the floor."

With so many young players on their rosters, Brey said they may not be a tournament favourite, but he's confident that this trip will help to eventually propel his team into the NCAA Championships next year.

Temple TJ Gibbs Jr led their attack with a game-high 26 points in 35 minutes and 41 seconds. He was 9-for-15 from the field and 8-for-10 from behind the three-point arch. Nate Laszewski followed with 22 points and seven rebounds off the bench. Rex Pleuger had seven points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals.

In a losing effort, 17-year-old Samuel Hunter, now playing in Canada, was a tower of strength with 21 points and eight rebounds in 26:17 minutes. He was 10-for-16 from the field, 1-for-1 from the three-point line and 0-for-1 from the charity stripe. Livingstone Mullings had 10 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals.

"I think the old legs gone on us," said Bowleg of the turn around in the outcome of the game. "They are more of a unit that has been together, but this is a team that we just put together, so we just wanted to give them a game so they can see what improvement they made. To only lose by ten points against a team of Notre Dame's calibre is not bad.

"It shows that we just have to get our teams together and practice before we play so that we can make a better showing against these visiting teams. We've won games against the visiting teams before and I know we can do it again. Hopefully before the series of games is over this month, one of our teams will win a game."

Thundering Herd 105, Mingoes 70: In their first trip to The Bahamas, Marshall University put together two solid quarters at the start and the end to defuse the University of The Bahamas in their first game in the tournament. The visitors made their presence felt on the inside with a huge 28-8 spurt in the first quarter.

Although the Mingoes used runs of their own to trail 53-32 at the half and 79-57 at the end of the third, they couldn't stop the Thundering Herd as they went on a 26-13 tear in the fourth to seal the deal.

"It was good. We needed it. Obviously had too many fouls," said Dan D'Antoni, a Marshall Athletics Hall of Famer now in his fourth season as the Thundering Herd head coach, one of the top ranked teams in Conference USA. "We were going deep down in the bench. We have to show up the bench a little bit more.

"I just hope we can get better, but I really want them to enjoy themselves. This is the summer. It's a long season. So we just want them to enjoy themselves and get better and get some tape so that when we get back, we can look at it and see what we need to work on for the season."

Taevion Hinsey came off the bench and led five players in double figures with 19 points as he connected on 9-for-13 from the field and 1-for-4 from the three-point line with four rebounds, three steals, two assists and as many block shots in 27:16 minutes. Jonathan Elmore had 16 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and three steals; Darius George had 13 points and five rebounds; Rondale Watson had 12 points, four rebounds and three steals and Jarrod West II had 11 points, seven steals and four assists.

Ramon Dames, coming off the bench in 30:50 minutes, connected on 4-for-8 from the field, 3-for-7 from three-point and 10-for-10 from the charity stripe for a game high 21 points to pace UB. He also had three assists, three steals and two rebounds. Kemsy Sylvester had 16 points, 11 rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block; Antwan Bevans had 10 points and four rebounds; Rashad Sturrup had seven points and three rebounds; Donovan Dean had six points and four rebounds and Christoph McKenzie chipped in with five points.

"It was a rough one, but I'm glad we got a good spanking," said UB's head coach Bacchus Rolle. "It opened up our eyes to a few things. Hopefully we will be able to go into the dungeons and pull something out for the next few games."

Even though they made a run for it in the third, Rolle said they simply didn't have any gas left to push the pedal when they needed to in the fourth quarter as the full team is just getting back into sync - with the Grand Bahamian players finally returning to New Providence for the new school year. But he said they will make some adjustments in their next two games on Wednesday and Saturday.

"The guys who came to play played and the guys who didn't come to play didn't play," he stated.

Hornets 87, Elites 84: In a game that was decided right at the buzzer, Alabama State University held off the local IBA Elites to complete their trip here with a perfect 3-0 record.

ABU, winners of their previous games, 106-81 over the Atlantis All-Stars and 97-88 over the Bahamas All-Stars, got a pair of free throws from Jacoby Ross with five seconds left on the clock to hold onto the win after Livingstone Mullings missed an attempted buzzer-beating three-pointer that could have ruined the trip for the visitors.

"Tough ball game. We made it a lot tougher than it should have been because we didn't do a good job of taking care of the ball on the offensive end," said Hornet's head coach Lewis Jackson. "Every time we built up a pretty good lead, we got away from what got us there.

"And our defence was bad. We gave up too many backdoor passes and too many offensive rebounds. But it was good for us to play this type of game, especially this time in August. We have a lot to build on. We have to play to play with a lot more poise, a lot more patience and just get tougher on defence."

Ross, coming off the bench in 29:01 minutes, led the Hornets with 17 points on 4-for-16 from the field, 1-for-5 from the three-point line and a perfect 8-for-8 from the foul line with two assists, two steals and a rebound and block shot. Fausto Pichardo also came off the bench with 15 points, nine rebounds and three steals; Reginald Gee also had 15 points and four rebounds; Mojeed Tobi Ewuosho contributed 12 points, six rebounds and five steals off the bench and Azariah Seay helped out with 11 points.

For IDA, Mullings exploded for a game-high 39 points on 14-for-19 from the field and 8-for-11 from the foul line in 35:15 minutes off the bench. He also had 16 rebounds, six assists and two blocks. Azaro Roker added 21 points and nine rebounds; Quemah Gibson had 19 points, five rebounds, five steals and two blocks and Tevin Hudson had six points and six rebounds.

"It came down to crunch time. We had an opportunity to win, but I think we made too many mistakes in the first and second quarters," said IDA's head coach Denykco Bowles, whose team trailed 15-13 at the end of the first quarter and 38-27 at the half. "We buckled down in the second half, but we had to battle back from such a huge deficit.

"Hats off to the guys. They played with poise. The latter part of the second half allowed us to make it a game today. But both teams played extremely hard. My team shot the ball fairly well today. I didn't see that on Wednesday. But they came out with fire today. Hopefully on Thursday when we play again against Northern Arizona, we can pull one off."