Ebuka Okorie shined in South Bend as Stanford (19-11, 8-9) topped Notre Dame (13-17, 4-13) 86-78 on Wednesday night.
Okorie scored a game-high 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting and added seven assists in the final regular season game at Purcell Pavilion.
The freshman point guard helped break the game open in the first half, drilling three triples in a two-minute stretch that turned a one-point lead into a 10-point advantage for Stanford.
Jalen Haralson led the Irish with 19 points, including a 13-of-15 performance from the free throw line. Sophomore Cole Certa added 17 for Notre Dame.
The turning point in the game was Notre Dame’s defense. Stanford shot 57 percent from the field and a blistering 69 percent in the first half. The Cardinal were also efficient from beyond the arc, finishing 12-of-23 from three.
“Credit to Stanford,” stated Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry. “I thought they came in and were really locked in. Got big contributions from a lot of different guys.But for us, man, you get what you deserve. I thought our focus sucked. I thought our discipline sucked. I thought our awareness sucked.
“When your back's against the wall, you gotta come out and be better than that. And we weren't.”
Notre Dame shot 43 percent from the field, but kept hanging around due by getting to the foul line. As a team, Notre Dame finished the night 25-of-28 from the free throw line.
Stanford also got timely buckets from several role players. Off the bench, Jeremy Dent-Smith scored 21 points on 5-of-6 from three, while Donavin Young scored 10 points and recorded three blocks, including sending one 12 rows into the student section.
The Cardinal outscored Notre Dame’s bench 34-23 and held a 34-24 edge in the paint.
Braeden Shrewsberry scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds for the Irish, while Brady Koehler and Logan Imes each added 10.
Notre Dame’s hopes of reaching the ACC Tournament took a hit when Pitt fell to Florida State earlier in the evening. The Irish now need to beat Boston College on Saturday and have Pitt lose to Syracuse.
“Now you need somebody else's help,” said an emotional Shrewsberry. “If you just handle business, if you just come out locked in and just come out assertive, you do what you're supposed to do on every single possession, mistakes are gonna happen. We got guys not doing what they're supposed to do, so you deserve to lose when you're doing that.”
DEFENSE
Notre Dame’s defense has been an issue for much of the season and Wednesday night was no different. The Irish struggled to get key stops and allowed Stanford to get comfortable from beyond the arc.
Shrewsberry was most frustrated with his team’s failure to execute basic details from the scouting report.
“When you write on the scouting report that 90 percent of Benny Gealer’s shots are threes – doesn't matter, it's just like guarding Cole, just like guarding Braeden. You have to guard him at the logo. We close out short and he gets threes.
“Jeremy Dent-Smith isn't 90 percent, but he's almost 80. That's all he's doing, he's shooting the threes. We're closing out without a hand. We're closing out not in his airspace and those dudes are comfortable. I don't know what more else you can do. Sometimes you just gotta execute.”
Down 79-76 with 58 seconds remaining, Stanford delivered the dagger. Notre Dame blitzed Okorie to force the ball out of his hands, but Dent-Smith was left wide open on the backside and buried a three to push the lead to six with 44 seconds left.
“We tried to blitz three possessions in a row before that and didn't do it,” explained Shrewsberry. “Then by the time we did, we didn't have the awareness to rotate to a shooter on the backside. Just do it right the first time.”
Okorie entered the night averaging 22.7 points per game, though Notre Dame and Duke were the only teams to hold him to single digits earlier this season.
Wednesday’s performance was far from the seven-point outing he had in December against the Irish, but Shrewsberry emphasized that it wasn’t Okorie who ultimately beat them.
“I'm not worried about a Ebuka Okorie’s 24,” Shrewsberry stated. “It's Dent Smith's 21. It's AJ Rohosy posting us in the charge circle and getting 10. It's Benny Gealer having seven in the first half. It's Donivan Young posting us, and that's not putting up a fight and getting 10.
“It wasn’t about Ebuka Okorie. It was everybody else saying I'm gonna stand up and take away this other dude and we wilted when we had the opportunity to do it.”
SUPPORT
With under six minutes to play in the game, Purcell Pavilion had six completely empty sections. The student section was rowdy, but lacked numbers.
Now, no one is going to fault the South Bend community for not showing up for a 9:00 PM local tip, but Shrewsberry made it clear he’s grateful for the fans who have shown up all season.
“As I walk off the court, there's people that are sitting there, there's people in the stands that are yelling over the edge, like people that are little kids or whoever, who are giving us high fives,” Shrewsberry explained. “ still saying, hey, we believe in you, right? We have some, we got some fans here that have our back.”
Just over a year ago, Shrewsberry went on a rant after losing to Louisville in an arena full of red. The message was direct and centered around not wanting to see bandwagon fans, which the crowd that showed up on Wednesday was not.
“I said, ‘Don't come back when we start winning.’ These people show up, right? That's not who I'm talking to. It's the people that sit back, that are out on their keyboards, in their basement, that aren't real fans anyway. Not the people that show up every time. I thought our student group has been great for us all year.
“I appreciate every bit of it and nobody's as frustrated as I am. It is what it is, right? It hasn't gone the way that we wanted it to go, but it doesn't dim my belief in what we can do here and what we will do here. For the people who have showed up each and every night, 9:00 on a Wednesday night, those are true Notre Dame fans right there. That's the group right there that's gonna see us have success.”
UP NEXT
Notre Dame will wrap up the regular season on Saturday at Boston College. Tip is set for 12:00 PM ET on ESPNU.
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