Notre Dame Rolls Evansville 82-58 Behind Career Nights from Shrewsberry, Mohammed
Saturday afternoon started as a game of runs as Notre Dame (9-3) beat Evansville (4-7) 82-55.
The Irish opened the game with an impressive 8-0 run out of the gate, but Evansville quickly answered with an 8-0 run of its own before the first media timeout.
Notre Dame then used a 9-0 run behind threes from Braeden Shrewsberry and Sir Mohammed to go up 19-12, and the Irish never looked back.
Shrewsberry carried the Irish with 17 points, including five threes, in the first half as Notre Dame took a 41-29 lead into the break.
“You never really know,” Shrewsberry said when asked if he knew it was going to be his night. “I felt really good in the warm-ups. I felt like I had good juice and the shots were going in. Honestly, it just depends on, like, what type of shots you're getting. I got some good shots and they were screening for me.”
Evansville did make it interesting with another 9-0 run to cut the Irish lead to 52-49, but that was quickly answered. Notre Dame went on a 15-2 run to push the lead to 67-51 and Mohammed scored eight during the stretch.
Mohammed ended the night with a career-high 21 points, while Shrewsberry also had a career-high 26 points, including shooting 8-for-10 from three-point range.
It’s the fourth game in a row in double figures for Shrewsberry and he’s made it a point to be more aggressive.
“I definitely had to respond after the Houston game,” explained Shrewsberry. “They're a really good defense, but I can't play like that in that big of a game. These games are big, too.”
Notre Dame shot 47 percent from the field and 56 percent from deep. The Irish out-rebounded Evansville 38-32 led by Kebba Njie’s 10 boards.
Connor Turnball led Evansville with 17 points and nine rebounds.
HELLO, SIR
Saturday was a glimpse into the player Micah Shrewsberry believes Sir Mohammad can be. The Charlotte native was consistent, efficient, and aggressive, which are three qualities he has struggled to put together at times.
“Sometimes it's your night, sometimes it's not your night,” said Mohammed. “We have such a good team that every single night is going to be someone different. I guess just how they guard us allowed me to be the person that scored a couple extra buckets tonight. Any night could be somewhat different.”
The aggressiveness in hunting for his shot was controlled. It’s also an example of how dangerous this Notre Dame team has a chance to be. Jalen Haralson had an off night scoring 10 points on 4-of-16 from the field, but Mohammed picked him up. Mohammed was able to take advantage of more iso ball his way and had a big night.
Shrewsberry might have lost his best player in Markus Burton, but he’s found ways to attack defense with his bigger guards.
“We try not to complicate offense,” explained Shrewsberry. “All we're trying to do is to get two people on the ball and get you in the rotation so we play four versus three. How we get to it, we do it in different ways.
“With Jalen and Sir, it may be more post-ups. It may be more ball screens. Attacking it in different ways and doing it from game to game, our game plan and how we've attacked, has been different in each game in the last few. We're a pretty smart IQ group where we can change stuff.”
ROLE PLAYERS RISING
Earlier in the week, freshman Brady Koehler came off the bench and gave the Irish a spark on the defensive end with four blocks. On Saturday, Kebba Njie provided the spark for the Irish as he had a game-high 10 rebounds.
With Markus Burton out, Notre Dame’s role players have to step up and that’s exactly what they’re doing. It might not be points, but Koehler and Njie are finding ways to impact the game in noticeable ways.
Njie believes his impact has been there all year, but tonight the numbers reflected it.
“It's been like every game,” stated Njie. “Sometimes the numbers show, sometimes they don't. I'm the type of dude that impacts the game, whether the numbers show in the stat sheet or not. Today they did, and I did whatever it takes to help my team win.”
Shrewsberry has appreciated Njie’s attitude toward the team this year. It’s not easy to move out of the starting lineup or see your role decrease, but Njie has made the most of it.
“He's not starting, his minutes have decreased and all he asks is, what do you need from me,” explained Shrewsberry. “What do you need from me today? Last game was a hard game for him because they had bigs, not their starter, but the guys off the bench picked and popped. How we guarded, how we switched, it wasn't a great matchup for him. But this one was because they played a bigger center.
“I thought when he came back in the second half and Carson (Towt) got fouls, we really took off with energy. I thought his rebounding and defense was good.”
NO ZACKERY
Mark Zackery IV made his first public appearance with the Notre Dame basketball team on Saturday after joining the program earlier in the week.
Shrewsberry got the blessing from Zackery’s parents, Marcus Freeman and Mike Mickens before even approaching the freshman cornerback about joining the team.
“I wanted to get some okays from a lot of different areas,” stated Shrewsberry. “He's still a kid, so I wanted to see what was best for him. If it worked out for him and it didn't affect him in any way, then he could come and help us. He was priority No. 1 -- his football career, right?
“The reason he's here is because their season's over. December 10th, if this was January something, we probably wouldn't be talking about it because he needs 2-3 weeks after that to get up to speed. Now we're in the February.”
Shrewsberry was familiar with Zackery as Braeden had played AAU ball on the same team and he was able to see him play while recruiting other players in Indy throughout the years. And Zackery was a perfect fit because Notre Dame needs depth at point guard.
Zackery didn’t see any action in the blow out and that was by design.
“Yesterday was his first day at his practice and the first time he's played basketball in six months,” said Shrewsberry. “So not from a rust standpoint, from a more injury standpoint. Playing football and playing basketball takes two completely different things. The first question that I asked Coach Freeman last week was, is this going to affect him in any way with next year? If so, I don't wanna address it. I'm not being selfish. I want that kid to have a great career at Notre Dame. I'm not selfish about this.
“If he said, yeah, this is gonna affect him, then I wouldn't even approach him to it. That kid's welfare is my No. 1 priority. So next week, he'll get a chance to practice with us for a full week. If we got in this situation again next week, then he could probably play because he's probably a little more comfortable and his body's adjusted a little bit more.”
UP NEXT
Notre Dame will return to action on December 21st, as Purdue Fort Wayne comes to Purcell Pavilion for a 2:00 PM ET tip on ACC Network Extra.
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