Questionable foul on Zach Austin at the buzzer gives the Irish some luck in a season that lacked it
After a disappointing regular season, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish wound up doing what Micah Shrewsberry vowed not to do this year — play on Tuesday in the ACC Tournament. Nonetheless, the Irish were riding a strong finish to the regular season into a matchup against a Pittsburgh Panthers team that they had previously beaten, so the news wasn’t all bad. Even better, a vulnerable North Carolina team was slotted as a potential second-round matchup, so the Irish were presented with an opportunity to make some noise.
The Irish offense started off beautifully, with a slashing drive-and-score from Julian Roper and a nice dish in traffic from Markus Burton to Nikita Konstantynovskyi for a quick 4-0 lead. Konstantynovskyi then got drilled with an elbow from Cameron Corhen on defense for a flagrant foul, and to everyone’s surprise, swished both free throws. The Irish defensive effort was very strong on the other end, mostly not giving Pitt anything easy, so after a Burton pull-up jumper and an Allocco three, the Irish led 11-5 at the first break.
The break and some Irish subs didn’t change the vibes much. Some Pitt free throws weren’t enough to offset another Allocco three and a nice feed from J.R. Konieczny to Sir Mohammed for an easy bucket. A bulldozer bucket from Davis in the lane and a put-back from Konstantynovskyi gave the Irish a double-digit lead. The interior defense from Pittsburgh was miserable, and the Irish kept exploiting it successfully.
A Cole Certa three kept the good feelings going but the momentum started to palpably shift when Davis picked up his second foul along with a technical (see bullet points). The Panthers benefitted from the Irish subbing out their best defender and started attacking the paint to chip away at the Irish lead. When Ishmael Leggett got a fortunate lay-up off of a loose ball after some great effort from Julian Roper, the Panthers had dropped the lead to just three points, at 25-22. The Irish had turned the ball over ten times in the first half and did not score in the final 4:39.
The three point shooting in this game was woeful in the first half and continued in the second. After Pitt missed a couple, the Irish sat at 3-for-16 and the Panthers were at 2-for-15. Markus Burton was getting very frustrated by Leggett’s defense and was forcing it too much. Davis was a saving grace early on in the second half, as he connected on a couple buckets while the rest of the Irish offense looked disoriented. The momentum clearly was swinging Pitt’s way as they got to the rim a couple times and succeeded on second chance opportunities where the Irish could not. A jump-hook from Corhen gave Pitt its first lead, at 32-31, and Zack Austin (who was remarkably quiet the first time these teams got together) made one of this game’s rare three pointers the next trip down.
More bad offense kept plaguing the Irish as tough shots late in the shot clock and Sir Mohammed passing the ball to…Micah Shrewsberry, I guess, disrupted the flow. Corhen kept getting open looks inside, scoring all eight of his points in the second half, and the only answer for the Irish, as has so often been the case, was Markus Burton making physical drives to the hoop. The Irish were able to grind the game back into a tie when Roper scored on a tough contested bucket in the lane.
The refs were letting them play on both ends, but the main result was that the game was turning into a rock fight, and the collective 6-for-39 performance from three was not helping. It was 43-43 when the clock hit six minutes to go with offensive momentum extremely hard to come by. The Panthers were all too willing to sag off of Davis and Roper in the corners, and the lane was always crowded. A transition bucket by Jaland Lowe before the Irish defense got set was the only basket for either team in a two-minute stretch. The Irish had hit their season high of turnovers with 17 with 4:30 still to play. It was a mess.
Lowe got downhill again just under the 4:00 minute mark for another lay-in, putting the Irish down four with little going for them on the offensive end. Things look bleak, but they changed in a heartbeat. A ball-fake by Allocco on a broken possession got him loose for a top-of-the-key three, and Burton just ripped the ball out away from the Panthers on their next trip down. Markus would miss the fast break lay-up, but Roper, who was having a solid game, put it back for a two-handed slam, giving the Irish a one-point lead with three minutes to play.
Corhen got the ball in the post against Allocco somehow, so the lead was short-lived. However, Davis drove hard to the hoop and got fouled, making both free throws to take it back. The Irish got a stop, but then elected to burn clock with two minutes to go, which resulted in a pretty miserable shot from Burton as the shot clock nearly expired. Making matters worse, Burton knocked over Brandin Cummings on the rebound, putting the Panthers into the bonus and giving them the lead, as Cummings knocked down both with 90 seconds to play.
Davis wasted no time getting to the line himself, driving and drawing Corhen’s fourth foul and putting the Irish in the bonus. He made both to give the Irish a narrow one-point lead with 1:21 to go, but Cummings got a three to go down after bouncing off of nearly every inch of the rim. After an Irish timeout, Burton angled around a Pitt defender for a bank shot that wound up hitting only the glass, but Konstantynovskyi continued his huge step-up playing starters’ minutes, tipping in the rebound to tie the game with 53 seconds to go.
Lowe came down and left his lay-in attempt short after a nice contest by Konstantynovskyi, but the rebound was knocked out of bounds by Nikita, keeping the possession with Pitt. There were only 34 seconds left at this stage, but the shot clock was 20, so the Panthers couldn’t just hold for one. After Pitt got it inbounds, Lowe drove around a screen, getting Davis switched onto him, who forced Lowe baseline. Very reminiscent of the mistake that Cal guard Jeremiah Wilkinson made in Notre Dame’s regular season finale, Lowe stepped on the baseline with 19.2 to play, giving the Irish a chance to win the game with one final possession.
Then, all hell broke loose. After a Cole Certa screen, Burton got forced into a tough running jumper that didn’t come all that close, but Tae Davis had a chance at a put-back. He missed, appearing to send the game into overtime, but a late whistle from Tony Henderson came in after the horn, and after both teams had more or less conceded that they were playing another five minutes. The refs indicated a foul on Austin on the put-back. Given how physical the game had been and the relatively low amount of contact between Austin and Davis, it’s a foul that probably shouldn’t have been called. Davis made the first and missed the second (likely on purpose, but it was close) so Pitt couldn’t have a shot at a heave with 0.5 seconds left.
The mood in the arena, which seemed like mostly Pittsburgh fans, was absolutely miserable, Lowe had to be restrained from chasing down Henderson, and when coach Jeff Capel chased him down, it was unclear whether he was more concerned with protecting his player or getting him out of the way so he could let Henderson hear it himself. For the Panthers, it’s a bitter pill to swallow, as that foul will be the last moment of Austin’s college career. The Irish walked out of there feeling like they got away with one. But given how many close games have failed to go Notre Dame’s way this season, it’s firmly take-what-you-can-get territory.
Bullet Points:
- Kebba Njie was in the concussion protocol and did not play.
- In his place, Konstantynovskyi stepped up and did very well, with a couple clutch buckets when the Irish needed them. He finished with 10 points and 9 rebounds, making all four of his shots from the floor in a game where field goals were sacred. He doesn’t have Njie’s on-ball defensive ability, but is the superior defensive rebounder, and that showed up today like it did against California.
- By the same token, eight points out of Julian Roper was huge in a game where no one got to 56.
- Garrett Sundra had a bad stretch early in the game. He missed an open three, got beat and committed a foul, and then turned the ball over with a bad pass on three consecutive possessions, making him responsible for the only positive momentum Pitt could sustain early on.
- Tae Davis got entangled in a confrontation when he fouled Jorge Diaz Graham to the ground, and Jorge’s brother Guillermo very lightly pushed Davis away as he went to help Jorge back to his feet. Davis overreacted and went after Guillermo, and he picked up a technical foul.
- Burton had a pretty bad game, and it’s huge the Irish were able to get a win without him or Davis really getting going. He netted 10 points on 14 shots, with 6 turnovers against 3 assists. To his credit, he notched four steals.
- The teams finished a combined 8-for-42 from three. Pitt was 4-for-22 and Notre Dame was 4-for-20 (and 1-for-14 from non-Allocco shooters).