SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team couldn’t build off its momentum earned after garnering its first ACC road victory, returning home to Purcell Pavilion on Saturday to fall to Florida State, 67-58. The Fighting Irish (7-10, 2-4) rallied down 13 in the second half to cut it to as low as three points, but just couldn’t get over the final hump against the Seminoles (10-6, 4-1).
Freshman guard Markus Burton recorded his fifth 20-plus point performance of the season with a team-high 20 points on Saturday. Burton shot 8-of-14 from the field and 2-of-4 from three.
J.R. Konieczny earned his ninth game in double figures with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Kebba Njie grabbed a team-best eight rebounds. Braeden Shrewsberry drained a couple of late second half threes to finish with eight points.
It was two categories that hurt the Irish on Saturday: second-chance points and free throws. The Seminoles grabbed 10 offensive boards in the first half (finished with 12) and ultimately recorded 16 second-chance points. FSU also went 13-of-15 from the free-throw line compared to Notre Dame’s 3-for-11.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Burton, Konieczny and Booth all connected from beyond the arc early but a 6-0 Florida State run over a two-minute span gave the Seminoles a 17-13 advantage. Roper II then joined in and hit one from deep to make it one point game immediately after the 11:40 media timeout.
Imes and Konieczny connected on back-to-back layups and then Roper II drained another trey and it was a quick 7-0 run for the home squad. The Irish eventually built a 24-20 lead thanks to a defensive stint in which they limited the Seminoles to a 1-for-14 stretch from the field and a four-minute drought.
The Seminoles responded with a run of their own as a 9-0 scoring spree gave Florida State a 29-24 lead. Konieczny ended a near five-minute drought with a drive to the rim which would bring the Irish within three with 1:34 left in the half.
Burton tacked on a three with 25 seconds left, Notre Dame’s sixth of the half, but Florida State earned a layup at the buzzer to claim a 33-29 halftime lead. Roper II, Burton and Konieczny combined for 22 of the team’s 29 points at the break as the trio shot a combined 8-for-16.
Florida State came out and scored the first eight points of the second half, building its largest lead of the game at 41-29, which prompted a Coach Shrewsberry timeout. Braeden Shrewsberry then got the Irish going with a pull-up jumper that beat the shot clock, then moments later, back-to-back buckets from Imes and Burton cut the deficit to just six points.
However, Florida State’s Primo Spears hit a gut-punch of a three that kicked off an 8-0 Seminole run in a swift 90-second span, pushing the lead back to double digits.
Notre Dame bent but didn’t break, firing back as a Konieczny three capped a 9-0 run to pull within five at 51-46 with 8:15 left.
Trailing by 10, Burton scored six straight for the Irish to make it a 58-52 ballgame with 3:26 remaining. When the Irish needed a spark most, Shrewsberry knocked down back-to-back threes to bring the Irish within three at 61-58.
Later down five with under 40 seconds to go, Konieczny had a look at three in the corner but it rimmed out. FSU then iced the game at the free-throw line.
UP NEXT
It’s an extremely quick turnaround for the Irish before earning a weeklong midseason break. Notre Dame will jet off to Boston tomorrow to take on Boston College on Monday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
— ND –