Kansas seemed poised to run away from Notre Dame on multiple occasions during the teams’ opening game in the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas on Monday, but the Irish kept fighting to keep it a game.
Unfortunately for the Irish, they were never able to get closer than four points in the second half and the Jayhawks did manage to pull away late to win 71-61.
Notre Dame dropped to 4-2 on the season while Kansas improved to 4-2.
Things didn’t seem dire for Notre Dame until Jamari McDowell’s three-pointer stretched the Jayhawks’ lead to 67-57 with less than three minutes to play.
The Irish defense made things tough on Kansas down the stretch, but that aggression led to a breakaway dunk by Melvin Council and a tip-in dunk by Tre White to ice the game in the final minute.
Markus Burton led the Irish with 24 points while Jalen Halarson chipped in with 13 points. Braeden Shrewsberry added nine on a trio of three-pointers. Carson Towt led the Irish with 10 rebounds, but nobody else had more than five. Notre Dame shot just 34.4 percent (22-64) from the field and just 16.7 percent (4-24) from three.
Kansas big man Flory Bidunga led the Jayhawks with 18 points and nine rebounds. Tre White added 16 points and nine rebounds and Bryson Tiller had 17 points and nine rebounds.
The Irish trailed by seven after the first half.
Kansas twice increased the lead to nine early in the second half, but Notre Dame kept pace and layups by Towt and Burton on consecutive possessions cut the lead to 45-40 five minutes after the break.
But Council, drained back-to-back three-pointers as Kansas pushed the lead back to 51-40 a minute later.
The Irish would score 11 of the next 15 points, though, to cut the lead to 55-51 with eight minutes to play, but it would quickly balloon back up to eight after Tiller made consecutive buckets.
The Irish kept it close until the final minute.
Notre Dame returns to action in the Players Era Festival on Tuesday, when they play Rutgers at 1 p.m. (EST) in a game that will be aired on TNT. The Scarlet Knights fell to 4-2 on the season after being blown out by Tennessee 85-60 in their tourney opener against Tennessee on Monday.
The Irish scored the first four points of the game and after Kansas responded with the next five, a three-pointer from Shrewsberry and a pair of free throws from Haralson gave the Irish a 9-5 lead less than four minutes in.
The Jayhawks would take their next lead of the game following a poor sequence by Burton.
The Irish star point guard had his three-pointer blocked badly by Bidunga on one end and then was called for a flagrant foul on the ensuing fast break and Bidunga was still able to convert the lay-up. Bidunga made both free throws and then banked one home as Kansas turned it into a six-point possession, giving the Jayhawks a 19-15 advantage.
That sequence helped key a 20-5 Kansas run that saw them increase their lead to 29-18 six minutes before the half. Kansas would push it to a 13-point lead - 39-26 - a minute before the half, but Shrewsberry responded with his second three of the game to bring it back down to 10 on the next possession.
The Irish missed nine straight three-point attempts between Shrewsberry’s early and late triples and while they finished just 3-for-13 from beyond the arc in the first half, Certa would sink another one to cut Kansas’ lead to seven at 39-32 at intermission.
Burton led the Irish with 10 points in the first half, but was just 3-for-11 from the field. Bidunga led Kansas with 14 first-half points while Tiller had nine points and seven rebounds and White added nine points and five rebounds.
Notre Dame was just 9-for-28 (32.1%) from the floor in the first half while Kansas was 15-for-31 (48.4%). The Jayhawks outrebounded the Irish 24-15 in the first stanza. Kansas also dominated scoring in the paint, earning a 22-12 advantage in the first 20 minutes.
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