Notre Dame Opens 2025-26 Campaign with 89-67 Win Over Long Island University

Notre Dame (1-0) cruised to an easy 89-67 win over LIU (0-1) on opening night of the college basketball season. 

The Irish were led by Markus Burton’s 24 points and graduate transfer Carson Towt scored two points, but pulled down 19 rebounds in his debut in the blue and gold. 

Micah Shrewsberry also got massive production from his bench, which hasn’t always been the case during his first two seasons in South Bend. Notre Dame’s bench outscored LIU 52-19 on Monday night as sophomore Cole Certa tallied 22 points, including 6-of-9 from three-point range. 

Freshman guard Ryder Frost scored all of his 15 points in the final 20 minutes and that included hitting four treys. For the game, Notre Dame went 14-of-27 from behind the arc and that’s a great sign given Braeden Shrewsberry went 0-for-2 from deep. 

Behind Towt, Notre Dame dominated the glass 45-31 and pulled down 17 offensive rebounds, leading to 21 second-chance points. 

Freshman guard Jalan Haralson did leave the game early in the second half to get stitches on his eye, but he did return to the bench. Haralson scored four points and pulled down three rebounds in his first game at Purcell Pavilion. 

OFFENSE
The Notre Dame offense looks similar and different. Shrewsberry’s teams are always going to have the influence of the NBA with iso ball. You saw it with Burton and Davis last year and it will be Burton and Haralson in 2025-26. 

Haralson’s designed touches came from the right side between the elbow and the corner. It gave him little more flexibility to work as there’s more space than if he started on the elbow or on the block, but it also doesn’t let him get downhill as you see with Burton at the top of the key. 

Right now, Haralson is more of a slasher, so he can work his way to the elbow and down the lane, but he hasn’t shown any type of jump shot in the two games at Purcell Pavilion this year. 

The good news for Notre Dame’s offense is that they appear to have more firepower in year three of the Shrewsberry era. Certa didn’t play passively and was hunting his shot. The year two confidence was also evident as there was no hesitation in letting it fly. 

Frost came off the bench and gave the Irish a nice boost in the second half. What is his role this year? He appears to be the 11th guy, so can he show enough early to find a role when the competition ramps up? 

Towt is an interesting player. He’s not going to give Notre Dame much, if anything, on offense. He’s not athletic enough to create his own shot or bang in the paint to muscle his way to the rim and that’s against a LIU team that didn’t have rim presence. That said, Towt’s six offensive rebounds is a positive against any team. 

The other notable stat from game one is that Notre Dame had 15 assists on 27 field goals. Ball movement has been a struggle for the Irish over the last two years, and while it wasn't flying around the court, it was moving and finding open shooters. Logan Imes, Towt and Shrewsberry finished with three assists each. 

Notre Dame did record 19 turnovers, which is high, but it’s also the season opener. Burton was reckless with the ball in the two exhibition games and had four more turnovers tonight. He’s going to turn it over at a higher rate due to his usage, but he needs to clean up some of his decision-making. That’s not a conern...yet. 

DEFENSE
It’s hard to tell where Notre Dame is at defensively. LIU was not a good shooting team and almost exclusively played iso-ball. The Irish didn’t let LIU attack the rim, so the perimeter defense appears to be better as teams have attacked Burton and Shrewsberry downhill over the last two seasons. That said, LIU didn’t have the caliber of athletes to win off the dribble. 

Towt is a monster on the boards and has the God-given talent of the ball finding him. He’s not going to outjump anyone, but he wins by being in the right spot. That said, I think he’s going to have some problems against major conference players as they are going to be more athletic and much bigger. LIU had a couple buckets over Towt with pure athleticism and length that likely wouldn’t have happened against Njie. 

The most significant sign of defensive development was that the Irish weren’t out of position much on Monday night. In the past, Notre Dame would give up easy buckets or leave guys wide open. There wasn’t much of that. 

LIU finished shooting just 38 percent from the field and 33 percent from three-point range. 

WRAPPING UP
There wasn’t much to take from Monday other than Notre Dame can score when locked in. There were a few droughts, but the Irish avoided the eight-minute scoring drought that has plagued this team dating back to the Mike Brey era. 

The effort was good and much better than the exhibition loss to DePaul. It’s hard to say Notre Dame started fast tonight as the officials controlled the game from start to finish. 48 fouls were called on the night and it played a factor in both teams not being able to find rhythm on the offensive end. 

Notre Dame will host Detroit Mercy on Friday night at 7:30 PM ET at Purcell Pavilion. 

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