Notre Dame Fails To Show Up in Athens, Dawgs Roll 69-48
Year two of the Micah Shrewsberry era is starting to look like year one as Notre Dame (4-5) fell 69-48 to Georgia (8-1) in the ACC/SEC Challenge on Tuesday night in Athens. The Fighting Irish have now dropped five games in a row and will start ACC play on Saturday as Syracuse comes to town.
Sure, Notre Dame star Markus Burton wasn’t available once again, but the Irish failed to compete on Tuesday outside of the first five minutes of the game. Notre Dame jumped out 6-0 and held Georgia scoreless until the 15:14 mark of the first half, but from there, it was an uphill battle as the Bulldogs used an 18-3 run to take command of the game and never looked back.
Tae Davis had a solid game for the Irish with 14 points and six rebounds, while Braeden Shrewsberry added 14 points, one rebound and two assists, but they were the only players in double figures for the Irish on this night.
Georgia star freshman and likely NBA lottery pick, Asa Newell, led Georgia with 20 points, 11 rebounds and two assists.
Notre Dame was dominated in just about every aspect of the game, which isn’t an encouraging sign as Burton will be out for at a minimum a few more weeks. Georgia held the Irish to 37 percent from the field, which included shooting just 21 percent from three-point range.
The Dawgs also out-rebounded Notre Dame 40-27 and held a 14-7 advantage on the offensive glass. Notre Dame only turned the ball over 10 times, but Georgia turned that into 13 points, while the Irish only forced five turnovers.
NO PLAYMAKING
Burton’s absence hurts the Irish in many ways on the offensive end. The Irish lose 18.2 ppg, but perhaps more importantly, Notre Dame has no one who can create their own shot, which in turn means the team lacks someone who can create for others.
Tuesday was the prime example of that as Notre Dame finished the game with five assists on 19 made field goals. It’s a significant concern moving forward as Notre Dame simply doesn’t have the athletes or talent to play iso ball. Notre Dame had just two players record an assist on the night as Matt Allocco finished with three and Shrewsberry had two.
Shrewsberry did start Julian Roper II in place of Logan Imes, but that didn’t help much. The senior guard finished with one point, four rebounds, two turnovers and zero assists in 20 minutes of action. Imes played five minutes and went 0-for-1 from the field and recorded two turnovers. Roper finished his night -9 while Imes was -14.
In addition to the loss of Burton, freshman guard Sir Mohammed is also missing time due to injury. This would have been a golden opportunity for Mohammed to gain experience, but also give Notre Dame a playmaker as the Irish see him as someone who can handle the ball and create for others.
NO FIGHT
Georgia ended the game on a 12-1 run over the final three minutes of the game. If you break it down further, Notre Dame’s last field goal was a Shrewsberry layup with 4:24 left in the game to make the score 57-47. The Irish also went 2 of its last 14 shots from the field
Notre Dame’s offense had no rhythm, but in the game situations in the second half, it seemed no one wanted the ball outside of Shrewsberry, who finished 4-of-10 from the field in final 20 minutes. Davis went 1-for-7 from the field in the second half and that simply can’t happen if Notre Dame wants to win games much less remain competitive.
In the second half alone, Notre Dame was out-rebounded 24-11, and Newell recorded seven of his 11 boards. Rebounding is about toughness and pride. You don’t need to be the most athletic player, but it takes effort. The Irish failed to show effort, and Tuesday will go down as another soft performance from this team, which is a concern as it’s becoming an all-too-common theme.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame will host Syracuse on Saturday. Tip is set for 12:00 PM ET on The CW.
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