Miami 63, Notre Dame 57: One of the worst losses in program history

Notre Dame quit at halftime against a team that hadn’t yet won an ACC game.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish took to the road again Saturday evening looking for their third consecutive ACC win against a very beatable Miami Hurricanes (4-17) squad, which had yet to win a conference game in 10 tries. The biggest issue that had been plaguing the Hurricanes is a complete lack of defense, but you wouldn’t know it based on how often the Irish turned over the ball in the second half. A woeful 20 minutes of scoring only 21 points against a depleted, dejected Hurricanes squad, coupled with an embarrassing evaporation of defensive effort, resulted in one of the absolute worst losses you’ve ever seen.

The Irish went to struggling starters Braeden Shrewsberry and Tae Davis on their first three possessions to try to get them going, but they missed all three shots despite some quality looks. Miami got on the board when the Irish errantly saved the ball near their own hoop, which led to a dunk for Miami’s Brandon Johnson. Miami would add a couple more buckets on contested twos to open up an early lead.

It was Matt Allocco who finally broke the seal for the Irish on their fifth field goal attempt with a jumper in the lane. Then, Kebba Njie exploited the Hurricanes’ Achilles heel — defensive rebounding — by putting back a Tae Davis brick to get the Irish some offensive momentum. A Shrewsberry three off of a nice gang offensive rebound and a Sir Mohammed slice between two defenders for a layup kept things going, and a Markus Burton transition three off of Julian Roper hunting the passing lane for a steal finally made it look like the Irish planned to exploit the hapless Hurricane defense.

Roper would get another hustle rebound on the next possession and after driving under the hoop, kicked the ball to Njie for a wide open corner three, bringing him to 7-for-13 on the season from deep. A finally-successful Tae Davis drive on the next possession after a J.R. Koniezcny block gave the Irish some breathing room. Allocco would feed Davis for a dunk to keep him going, and then a red-hot Shrewsberry knocked down threes on the next two possessions, which visibly fired up his dad. That brought the Irish lead to 25-13, but maybe more importantly, got two of their most important players into rhythm after some brutal play of late.

Logan Imes got a rare spot of playing time and got the next Irish bucket with a nice pivot move for a layup, but he got stripped for a pick-six on the next possession, which capped a 7-2 run for MIami, who were fighting back against the Irish bench players. A Matthew Cleveland three-pointer was answered by a corner three for Sir Mohammed on the third assist from Allocco, who was having a good half distributing the ball. The half ended with a nice steal from Burton that kicked off a fast break where hustle from Shrewsberry allowed him to get a put-back off of Markus’ initial miss. The Irish led 36-25 at the half on the strength of 6 offensive rebounds, 9 assists, and 4 steals.

Burton started off the second half with a couple virtually uncontested drives for a layup, and Tae Davis added on a rare three-point make, but the Irish defense began to soften, which allowed Miami to maintain pace. As woeful as the Hurricanes’ defense is, they’re fairly competent offensively, and it was disappointing to see the Irish get complacent. Notre Dame was effective at contesting the first attempt, but they weren’t boxing out on the back side, and Miami made them pay. A bad pass by Mohammed went for a pick-six, and Micah Shrewsberry had to call timeout with the lead down to 45-39 and 12 minutes left.

Braeden Shrewsberry helped to calm the nervous feelings on the other side of the break with a three, but Brandon Johnson answered quickly with one of his own to keep the lead at six. Matthew Cleveland kept going to work for the Hurricanes with a bucket driving on Shrewsberry, which woke up the sparse Hurricanes crowd, and Jalil Bethea drew a foul on Allocco on a drive, draining the lead down to two.

Burton put in a superstar-level three over Cleveland to stabilize things, and on the other end, was the first Irish player to put in a hustle play to bag a rebound after the Hurricanes were able to get up several attempts from three on a single possession. With Miami seemingly able to score at will against the indifferent Irish defense, he continued to have to do too much to keep Notre Dame out in front. The lead was down to 53-51 at the under-8 timeout, but it didn’t hold for long. Julian Roper bumped Johnson in the act of shooting on the very next possession. Tie ballgame.

Meanwhile, Irish possessions became a slog against one of the worst defenses in the country, consistently draining the shot clock and forcing up something stupid. There was no sync and no flow. Miami was able to grind the lead up to four on the strength of poor shots and Irish turnovers, which were up to seven in the second half by the five minute mark. Burton mercifully got a layup to stick on a strive to end an inexplicable 9-0 Hurricanes run.

Braeden Shrewsberry made a much-needed hustle play by diving on the floor to get possession back off of a Hurricanes missed three before the under-4 timeout. A well-executed screen-and-roll between Burton and Davis ended in a thunderous dunk for the latter, and the Irish tied the score.

However, a foul on Njie gave the Hurricanes the lead back, and an absolutely brutal possession for the Irish ensured. Burton stood a few feet back from the top of the key just dribbling, Micah Shrewsberry was trying to direct a play from the sidelines, and everyone just stood around until Burton jacked a deep contested three off of no action whatsoever. It clanged off the rim, and Miami got an easy floater in the lane on the other end to increase the lead to three. Tae Davis then made an inexplicably bad (and rare) pass attempt to Njie on the drive that got picked. On the next Irish possession, Burton slipped in the lane and threw the ball away, leaving the Hurricanes with the ball up three and under a minute left.

Miami successfully drained most of the shot clock before shooting but took possession after the rebound, which meant the Irish had to foul. Fortunately, Divine Ugochukwu only made one free throw, but the Irish had only 15 seconds to make up four points. Matt Allocco launched a quick three and got a phantom foul called, but he left the first free throw woefully short. Perhaps rattled, the next two rimmed out as well, to finish out one of the worst losses in program history in embarrassing fashion.

Bullet Points

• Nikita Konstantinovsky went to the free throw line late in the first half and made the first free throw, but oddly airballed the second.
• Allocco had a weird game. He shot the ball terribly and was responsible for a lot of the defensive issues throughout the night, but led the team in rebounds (8) and assists (5).
• Bench players committed 5 of the 12 turnovers for the Irish, which is stunning given how little they saw the floor in the second half.