Notre Dame Snaps Five-Game Skid with Gritty 68–64 Win Over Boston College
The five-game losing streak is finally over for Notre Dame (11-9, 2-5).
Notre Dame snapped its rough start to conference play Saturday night, rallying for a 68–64 come-from-behind win over Boston College (9–11, 2–5).
“I'm proud of these guys for just sticking with it,” Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry stated. “I told them it's not easy to come in every day with a great attitude to continue to put yourself out there, put everything you have into preparing, into playing, and when things don't go right, you turn around and do it the next day, and the next day, and the next day.
“They’ve never wavered in their belief, in their preparation, in their enthusiasm and their togetherness.”
As has often been the case this season, it wasn’t easy.
The Irish as they started slow and allowed Boston College to control the first half. The Eagles led 35-24 at the break, but Micah Shrewsberry’s club came out firing in the final 20 minutes.
Everything changed after halftime.
Shrewsberry’s team came out with energy, opening the second half on an 18–8 run to quickly erase the deficit. Notre Dame took its first lead of the night at the 10:40 mark when Cole Certa knocked down a three-pointer.
Braeden Shrewsberry ignited Notre Dame’s comeback, as he hit several runners and timely three-pointers that slowly chipped away at the deficit.
“I think it started on the defensive end,” explained the younger Shrewsberry. “We talked about halftime, and we haven't been very good out of the half the last couple games. So just really just keying in and getting stops early in that kind of field or offense in transition.”
Shrewsberry’s 22 points were a game-high.
Boston College had no answer for freshman Jalen Haralson in the second half as he scored 11 of his 17 points after the half.
“Coming into this game, we knew it was going to be a gritty game,” said Haralson. “That team, they really are, they're physical. We knew they weren't just going to give it to us. Like Braeden said, coming out of half, we knew we had to make the first punch.”
Graduate transfer Carson Towt provided the turning point in the game. With 7:03 left in the game, Towt might have had the flop of the year following a slight skirmish after a foul was called. Boston College was called for a technical and the 44.1 percent free-throw shooter banked in both freebies.
Certa followed it up with hitting two of his own from the foul line to give Notre Dame a 54-49 lead.
Towt finished his night with six points and 13 rebounds, while Certa added nine points.
Boston College was led by Fred Payne with 18 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Notre Dame out-rebounded the Eagles 39-35 and scored 15 second-chance points off 13 offensive boards.
TOWT DIFFERENCE
There is no denying that Carson Towt brings intangibles to the Notre Dame roster. The 6-foot-8, 250-pounder knows exactly who he is as a player. His value isn’t scoring. It’s battling every single possession and setting the bar for effort.
On Saturday, Towt’s ability to get under the skin of opponents was on full display during a chippy second half.
The flop was the headline moment, but it wasn’t the only one.
There were several sequences in which Towt found himself in the middle of a review or drawing the attention of multiple Boston College players well after the whistle.
“He's just such a leader on and off the court,” explained Shrewsberry. “We've got a lot of guys that just follow him in everything he does. When he plays that hard, getting a rebound over five guys, I've got to play harder too when you see that. He just fuels us a lot.”
When asked about Towt, both Shrewsberry and Jalen Haralson grinned. They know Towt’s attitude and approach can get under the skin of the opposition, but that’s his role, and he embraces it.
“That's my family,” Haralson stated. “I've never seen a guy rebound a ball and scream after. That's new for me. He's a competitor. He brings juice every day. We lean on him through tough times.”
GRIT
Following Notre Dame’s disappointing loss to North Carolina earlier in the week, Shrewsberry said he had to challenge his team to be grittier.
The Irish responded in the second half on Saturday and it’s something they can build on. A loss could have sent the season spiraling, but instead, Notre Dame showed signs of toughness that had been missing.
That mindset starts on the defensive end by locking in on details to create opportunities on offense.
“Things weren't going our way early,” explained Shrewsberry. “They were making shots. It felt like we were just one second off or a half second away in our post-doubles and some of our gap help, where now they were getting kickouts and we weren't quite there to challenge them. I thought we really adjusted.
“I thought those guys did a great job of being in a better position, being there quicker. Sometimes that's the grittiness that I'm talking about, too. Just doing my job every single possession, doing it better the next possession.”
Offensively, grit showed up on the glass with crucial second-chance points, but also in the physicality of screening. Notre Dame made sure Boston College felt every screen, which led to cleaner looks.
“I thought our screening was better,” said Shrewsberry. “I thought getting Braden, getting Cole, getting Jalen, some of these guys open. Carson, BK (Brady Koehler), Garrett (Sundra), I thought those guys were really giving up their bodies and screening and doing good things to get these guys open. That was some of the grittiness and toughness that I thought we were missing.”
UP NEXT
Notre Dame will host Virginia for a 7:00 PM ET tip Tuesday night on ESPN2.
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