Notre Dame players gathered around DJ Brown and helped their teammate off the floor late in a game that turned out to be a career-high showing for the senior guard.
After getting knocked to the floor in front of the Fighting Irish bench, Brown walked to the charity stripe where he converted a 4-point play with three minutes left. He would finish with 24 points in an impressive 56-39 Thanksgiving tournament home win over Red Bank.
Brown had a dozen points in both halves as he impressed with drives to the basket while also knocking down a trio of 3-pointers.
“Everybody knows that DJ is a shooter,” Notre Dame coach Jonathan Adams said. “So they are going to chase him off the 3-point line. We tell him, you’ve got to be able to go inside and be aggresive to the basket. Once he got going off the drive, it really opened his game up for a big night tonight.”
Junior Cole McCormick also played a crucial role in the victory over a short-handed Red Bank team which has several starters playing in this Friday’s Class 4A football semifinals against Anderson County.