Notre Dame Hoops Fall To Houston In Vegas
Micah Shrewsberry should be thankful for the fight his Irish have shown thus far in Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival.
The effort hasn’t resulted in any wins yet, but facing legitimately talented teams, including a Final Four contender in Houston late Wednesday night, the Notre Dame men’s basketball team didn’t show many signs of intimidation.
Both teams were coming off overtime losses the night before, with Houston falling to Alabama and the Irish losing to Rutgers.
The sixth-ranked Cougars (4-2) came out on top 65-54 as the Irish dropped their third straight to fall to 4-3 on the season.
But as disappointing as last week’s home loss to Elon was, there have been some positives to take away from the two games thus far in Vegas, especially since the Irish have been undermanned from the start.
Notre Dame will play Creighton in the seventh-place game on Saturday.
With leading scorer Markus Burton out “several weeks” after suffering a knee injury against Rutgers on Tuesday night, finding offense was going to be a question, especially against Houston’s aggressive, suffocating defense.
After Matt Allocco’s offensive outburst against Rutgers on Tuesday, it was Tae Davis’ turn to step up, at least in the first half.
Davis finished with 22 points and Braeden Shrewsberry scored 16, but Allocco only added eight and no other Irish player scored more than five.
The Irish did a good job slowing down Houston star guard L.J. Cryer, who scored only six points, but three other Cougars finished in double-figures, led by Emanuel Sharp, who had 17.
Houston’s eight-point halftime lead was quickly stretched to 10 early in the second half before a 13-4 Irish run - keyed by eight Shrewsberry points - cut made it a one-point game, 45-44, with 13:41 to play.
But then the Irish went on a four-minute scoring drought and once the Cougars stretched the lead back to nine, Notre Dame couldn’t get within seven.
Neither team shot well in the second half after impressive first halves.
The Cougars got off to a hot start, scoring the game’s first six points, but the Irish didn’t fold and were trailing only 10-8 at the first media timeout thanks to a pair of strong takes by Davis and a three by Shrewsberry.
Houston led by as many as nine twice, but Davis kept the Irish close for much of the first half. But a pair of jumpers from Terrance Arceneaux in the final minute allowed the Cougars to stretch that lead back to eight at intermission, 39-31.
Notre Dame shot 50 percent from the field in the first half, including 44 percent on threes (4-9).
But Houston matched that three-point output and hit on 58.6 percent of their shots from the field in the first half.
Davis led the Irish in the first half with 15 points and three assists. Cryer was held to just two points in the first 20 minutes, but Arceneaux put in 13 without missing a shot to pace the Cougars.
Houston will play San Diego State in the tournament’s third-place game on Saturday.
Following their game against Creighton, the Irish will play at Georgia next Tuesday before opening ACC play when they host Syracuse a week from Saturday.