Notre Dame is back in South Bend, and Mercyhurst is next. The Fighting Irish will host the Lakers on Thursday night in their home opener at Purcell Pavilion, with tip-off set for 7 p.m. ET and the game streaming live on ACCNX.
The timing gives Notre Dame little room to settle in. The team returned Monday around 5 p.m. ET after a 10-hour flight from Rome, had two practice days, and now begins a three-game homestand over seven days with the chance to move to 2-0. The home opener also carries some history behind it: Notre Dame is 111-11 in such games, a mark that explains why this one matters beyond the first week of the schedule.
That urgency sits beside a win that was not nearly as comfortable as the final score suggested. Notre Dame beat Villanova 74-72 on Sunday after erasing a 10-point second-half deficit, and Braeden Smith was at the center of it, scoring or assisting on 15 of Notre Dame's final 19 points. The Irish also closed with a 14-4 run in the final 3:37, a surge built on pressure rather than clean shooting. They made only 35.4 percent of their shots, worse than Villanova's 46.2 percent, but forced 20 turnovers, turned them into 20 points, collected 14 steals and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds that became 16 second-chance points.
Mercyhurst arrives with its own concerns after a 78-43 loss at Marquette, and Thursday night will be the first-ever matchup between the schools. The Lakers finished 17-17 overall and 10-8 in the NEC last season, reached the conference tournament title game in their first NEC-eligible season and were picked second in the NEC Preseason Poll with two first-place votes. They return five players from that team, but only 25.7 percent of last season's scoring, which leaves questions about how much resistance they can offer against a Notre Dame team trying to keep its early momentum intact.
Notre Dame's next stretch is already mapped out, with Eastern Illinois coming to South Bend on Nov. 9 and South Carolina State following on Nov. 11. If the Irish handle Mercyhurst the way a home opener usually demands, the week ahead will be about building on a 1-0 start rather than recovering from a stumble.
