Notre Dame Shows New Resolve in 86-77 Win Over Buffalo
Notre Dame (2-0) showed a little bit of everything on Monday night as the Irish held off a pesky Buffalo (2-1) squad 86-77.
In fact, Micah Shrewsberry’s club went to the locker room down 40-38 at halftime before blitzing the Bulls with an electric 24-2 run to start the second half to take a commanding 62-42 lead with just over 13 minutes to play.
The end of the first half wasn’t ideal for Notre Dame, but in a win, Shrewsberry saw it was a teaching moment and one the Irish will benefit from down the line despite not being pleased with his team’s performance.
“I think early on in the year, this is when you probably be a group that shows a little resolve at times,” stated Shrewsberry. “Last year, we’re losing this game. We didn’t play our best defensively. There’s some things we can do to clean it up. I’m not concerned about that.”
Offensively, Notre Dame was led by Tae Davis, who scored a career-high 27 points, which included going 12-of-13 from the free throw line. Sophomore guards Markus Burton and Braeden Shrewsberry scored 19, while Kebba Njie finished with 12 points and five rebounds.
Burton also flirted with a triple-double, ending his night with nine rebounds and eight assists.
“A big part of us getting paint touches is the focus that’s on him,” Shrewsberry explained. “We have to find different, creative ways to get him the ball and help him get into the paint.”
The Irish shot 51 percent for the game but just 25 percent from three, which was a key stat as Buffalo hit 11 threes on the night to keep the game within striking distance.
“This is a game where we were 5-of-20 from three and still found a way to get 86 points,” said Shrewsberry. “A lot of that was getting the ball into the paint and really dominating the paint whether that be at the rim or the free throw line.
“I thought in the first half we kind of took the bait a little bit. They didn’t come out of the paint to guard certain people. We feel for the bait. Our offense is really good when we get it to two sides and a paint touch. They weren’t guarding people and we were shooting at the first opportunity instead of working to get to the paint.
Once Notre Dame settled down, the Irish scored 46 points in the paint, while also winning the rebounding battle 41-38. The Irish also finished the night 21-of-27 from the free throw line.
Notre Dame quarterback Riley Leonard was in Purcell Pavilion to watch his cousin, Ryan Sabol, lead the Bulls with 18 points on the night.
DAVIS SHINES
Buffalo dared Tae Davis to take the bait to start the game. Davis, a career 16.7 percent shooter from beyond the arc, took three early treys and made one, but he quickly adjusted his game and went into attack mode.
Inside the three-point line, Davis shot 6-of-10 and took 13 important free throws while also adding six rebounds.
The big performance didn’t surprise Davis as he didn’t change his game, but simply took what the defense gave him.
“My mindset was keying into the game and playing basketball the right way,” stated Davis. “Just hooping.”
On defense, Davis took it upon himself to shut down Buffalo star Tyson Dunn, who was fresh off a triple-double of 14 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists.
“It was great,” Shrewsberry said of Davis’ performance. “I knew how important Dunn was to their offense. We had practiced all week with Tae guarding him from the start and then (Noah)) Batchelor is hurt and they start another big. That shifts everybody.
“I think Tae wanted that challenge the way he was guarding him early on. That kid is a good player, but to get him 4-for-17 and 0-of-8 from three and seven turnovers, it was a lot of focus of our guards getting into the ball and pressuring him and our bigs stopping the ball.”
GROWTH
Shrewsberry wasn’t wrong when he stated Notre Dame would have likely lost this game last year. The 2024-25 Irish showed composure and experience on Monday, which wasn’t the case for the majority of last year as Notre Dame battled inexperience and working through a lot of firsts in year one with Shrewsberry.
When Notre Dame needed a bucket, they got one. When they needed a stop, they got one and then rebounded. The Irish finished with just 10 turnovers, which also wouldn’t have been the case a year ago as Notre Dame routinely turned the ball over at crucial times.
“Just a little bit of resolve and toughness,” explained Shrewsberry. “We weren't getting our heads down in those moments. We’re just sticking to it. Let’s huddle and talk about what we need to do next.”
An example of Notre Dame's resolve was after it took the 20-point lead in the second half. Buffalo went on a run themselves to cut the Irish lead to 71-64 with 5:22 remaining in the game.
Notre Dame didn’t hesitate or panic, which happened all too often last season. Shrewsberry believes that trust was built in the summer and it paid off in the final minutes to earn win No. 2.
“We got a belief in each other and that’s kind of been built from the summertime,” Shrewsberry said. “I think a team that is close with each other off the court translates to what you’re doing on the court. It translates the most when there’s a little bit of adversity. We had a little bit of adversity. We went on runs and let them come back. We let them have a couple of runs. We probably would have folded (last year).”
24-2 RUN
At halftime, Purcell Pavilion was a little restless as Buffalo took a two-point lead into the break. Little did they know the Irish would come out on a 24-2 run.
“It’s just basketball,” Burton said. “They hit shots and we took our foot off the gas. In the second half, we picked it up and you saw what happened after that.”
The run featured layups, dunks, threes and more layups. It was a small taste of what this offense could look like, and Notre Dame will need more of it if they want to make serious noise in the ACC.
Shrewsberry was pleased to see his team respond coming out of halftime as that was also an issue last season, but the ability to take a punch back from Buffalo bodes well for the future.
“They want to be up 20 with 19 minutes on the clock, but it doesn’t happen that way,” said Shrewsberry. “Those guys have scholarships, too. You have to do it possession by possession. Every time we leave a huddle, I’m always talking about score, stop, score. That’s how you do it. You have to string those possessions together. We did it for moments.
“Dues had to play some minutes. This was an opportunity. They didn’t get to play a lot of minutes against Purdue Fort Wayne or Stonehill. They were playing real game minutes.”
UP NEXT: Notre Dame will hit the road to Washington D.C. for a Saturday 1:00 PM ET tip with Georgetown on NBC.
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