Notre Dame Falls Short In Final Minute, Loses to North Carolina, 74-73
Despite an inspiring second half comeback off the heels of the return of Markus Burton (23 points), Notre Dame came up short in the final minute to fall to North Carolina in South Bend 74-73 Saturday.
“Credit North Carolina for coming through with the win,” head coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “Credit our guys for playing really hard and competing and doing what they needed to do to win. I told them I let them down at the end and I apologized to them.”
It took the Irish and Tarheels a little while to settle into the game on the offensive side of the ball on a cold early Saturday afternoon matchup in South Bend. Guard Julian Roper opened up the action with a steal on the defensive end, taking it all the way for an emphatic dunk to give Notre Dame a quick lead.
The lead didn’t last long though as North Carolina soon found themselves heating up in Indiana. The Tarheels were having success in the paint, with 16 points in the paint through the midway point of the first half.
With about eight minutes gone in the first half, Burton checked into the game for the first time since late November. The guard had missed the last seven games with a knee injury, and returned to action off the bench. The Mishawaka, Indiana native played 10 minutes and was 3-3 inside the paint for six points — he went 0-3 from behind the arc.
“He's just a warrior man, he's worked his ass off to be able to get back and play and to give us 22-23 minutes,” Shrewsberry said. “Some people would be scared to come back against North Carolina. He wanted to be out there. He wanted to help his team, and that’s what he did.”
Burton appeared to make an immediate impact with helping the Irish’s offense find more flow. Burton had success driving in the lane, giving some much needed penetration to what was a stagnant offense at times in the opening minutes.
The beyond-the-arc struggle was a common theme among all the Irish in the first frame as the team shot just 25% from deep. Guard Dylan Shrewsberry went 2-5 from three to score eight and added in six boards in the first half.
After a physical attack from the North Carolina defense had limited Notre Dame from finding much rhythm, a pair of consecutive triples from forward Matt Allocco and guard Dylan Shrewsberry allowed the Irish to keep pace with Tarheel guard Ian Jackson.
Jackson was dominant in the middle portion of the first half, scoring 17 on 60% shooting as well as knocking down two triples to carry the Tarheels to a 39-32 lead heading into halftime.
North Carolina also had a lot of success getting to the line through the first 20 minutes. The Tarheels went 10-11 from the charity stripe to help offset its poor performance from deep, only shooting 3-13 in the first half.
To start the second half, Micah Shrewsberry presented a zone defense look to try and offset what was a dominant Tarheel paint attack — it didn’t work too well. Guard RJ Davis penetrated the zone with an easy floater and forward Jalen Washinton powered into the paint for another inside bucket to extend the lead to double digits.
Needing to find some offense, the Irish got a little sloppy, turning the ball over three times in the span of two minutes in the opening stages of the second frame. North Carolina was making them pay too, scoring 14 points off turnovers up to that point.
Once Burton checked back into the game, Notre Dame’s offense received a new burst of energy. Burton exploded into the paint multiple times to convert multiple and-ones, leading the Irish on a 12-0 run and a 48-47 lead before heading back to the bench.
“We just adjusted a little bit better,” Shrewsberry said. “We did a better job of keeping them out of the paint. Our ball screen defense adjusted a little bit better.”
After struggling to find much of an offensive rhythm for much of the game, suddenly the Irish were on fire as Saturday’s game became a heavyweight second half fight. Shrewsberry buried a transition three, his third of the game, to give Notre Dame a 56-53 lead. The guard followed that up with a sweet side-step three to get him up to 16 points.
“We got a bunch of fighters, man, a bunch of fighters,” Shrewsberry said. “When we compete and play, we can play with anybody.”
North Carolina wasn’t going away despite the Irish offensive onslaught, responding punch-for-punch as the game saw nine lead changes through 13 minutes of the second half. After trailing by seven at the break, a Tae Davis layup gave Notre Dame a four-point lead, its largest of the game with six minutes to go.
As the game was coming down the stretch, Jackson once again emerged with a tough bucket — on what was a career-high in points for the freshman — at the rim to tie the game at 66. After Jackson’s bucket the Irish went cold from the field, going nearly four minutes without making a shot.
Tre Davis ended the drought with a tough jumper to take back a one-point lead, and Burton put an emphasis on his return with a jumper of his own to take a three-point lead with just over a minute to play. With the ball in Burton’s hand and a chance to ice the game, the guard sent a wayward pass to Tae Davis who couldn’t corral the pass. Elliott Cadeau came after Burton on the next possession to get a quick layup and cut the lead back to one.
With the shot clock turned off, North Carolina was forced the foul Allocco who hit both of his free throws to get the lead back to three. The Tarheels went right back to Cadeau who hit a miracle three-point heave and was fouled on the shot by Allocco, suddenly putting North Carolina up one with four seconds remaining.
Micah Shrewsberry took the blame for not having his team foul up three in the final seconds.
“Should’ve fouled,” Shrewsberry said. “You get in that situation, you foul every single time.”
Burton was given the chance to play hero, going the length of the court in four seconds but came up short at the rim as the buzzer sounded. The Irish came up just short, losing 74-73.
“We’re getting back healthy, and now we’ll grow from this,” Shrewsberry said. “As much as it hurts, we’ll learn from this.”
Notre Dame will be back in action on the road when it takes on NC State Jan. 8. Tipoff set for 7:30 p.m. on the ACC Network.