SOUTH BEND – Make it two wins in a row for the Notre Dame men’s basketball team. The Fighting Irish (9-16, 4-10) took down the Yellow Jackets (10-15, 3-11) on Wednesday night inside Purcell Pavilion by the score of 58-55. Notre Dame has now won nine of its last 11 against Georgia Tech, including a regular-season sweep this year.
The Irish overcame shooting 31 percent from the field in what Glenn & Stacey Murphy Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry described as a gritty not pretty victory. The Irish got it done where it counted: tied season high in offensive rebounds (16), season high in second chance points (20), season high in free-throw attempts (22) and a season low in turnovers (6).
Markus Burton continues to make his case for ACC Rookie of the Year after leading in the Irish in scoring with 18 points. The freshman also supplied five assists and five steals. He’s now produced 34 points, 13 assists and 11 steals over the last two games.
Tae Davis showed true toughness tonight with his eighth game in double figures this season, tallying 17 points (two shy of his season high) on 6-of-12 shooting, plus a 4-for-4 mark from the line. Davis also grabbed six boards.
Speaking of rebounds, Kebba Njie grabbed seven, Julian Roper II reeled in six and Logan Imes collected five.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a slow start for both squads in Purcell Pavilion as Notre Dame found itself down 11-17. Tae Davis and Braeden Shrewsberry connected on back-to-back treys to tie the game.
Moments later, the Irish connected on a 3-for-3 stretch from the field as Burton was involved in all three possessions. It started with a tough drive to the basket. Then Burton dished to J.R. Konieczny for a corner three. Next, a patented Burton pull-up jumper in the paint and just like that it was an Irish 13-3 scoring run to go up 24-20.
Later, Kebba Njie and Tae Davis each tacked on a pair of free throws to give the Irish their largest lead of the half up 28-22. However, the Irish went 1-of-13 down the final four-minute stretch – the lone field goal being a Burton three-pointer. As a result, Notre Dame led just 31-28 at the half.
Davis had nine points and five rebounds at the halfway point, while Burton had nine as well to go with his two assists and two steals. Irish shot 30.0 percent from the field to the Yellow Jackets’ 39.3 percent. A major positive was that Notre Dame only produced two turnovers.
Georgia Tech came out with a big punch to start the second half, producing a 9-1 run to take the lead at 32-37, prompting a Coach Shrewsberry timeout.
Notre Dame recorded a 1-for-15 shooting stretch that extended from the end of the first into the opening minutes of the second, but stayed close by getting to the free-throw line. From 14:28-8:47, Burton, Davis and Roper supplied 10 points. Four of the five baskets in this stretch were second chance points.
Roper’s bucket kicked off an Irish 6-0 run which put the Irish back ahead at 49-46. Konieczny’s three with 7:00 on the clock marked Notre Dame’s first three of the second half and kept the home squad in front at 52-49.
Fast forward to just under 90 seconds remaining and the Irish were up just one at 54-53. With 3.5 seconds on the shot clock, Notre Dame executed a perfect out-of-bounds play to Davis who recorded the driving layup.
Now up 56-53 with 48 seconds left, the Yellow Jackets would finish at the rim on the driving layup to make it 56-55 with 38 seconds remaining.
While the Irish waited until the end of the shot clock to get a shot off, Burton would miss on the jump shot but Njie was able to get a hand on it to tip it to Imes and give the Irish the possession back.
Georgia Tech fouled and Burton knocked down two free throws to make it a final score of 58-55 for Notre Dame’s second ACC win in a row.
UP NEXT
The Irish get the weekend off before returning to action on the road next Wednesday. Notre Dame will travel to Louisville to take on the Cardinals at 7 p.m. ET on ESPNU inside the KFC Yum! Center.
— ND –