Notre Dame 69, Syracuse 64 — Fouls were called

A chippy affair was decided by Braeden Shrewsberry’s late heroics

It’s been a fairly rough start of the season for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, but on Saturday, Micah Shrewsberry’s boys were able to get back to .500 and start off ACC play 1-0. Notre Dame got it done against Syracuse, 69-64 insode Purcell Pavillion in South Bend.

The Syracuse Orange showed strong defensive pressure in the early going that seemed inconsistent with their track record thus far this season. However, Tae Davis was able to get downhill a couple of times for tough buckets and Braeden Shrewsberry converted on a four-point play to give the Irish an early lead. Shortly after, Davis was completely ignored in the corner on an under-the-basket inbounds play and drilled a three to keep the scoring humming. 14-8 at the under-12 timeout.

The Irish defense continued their bad habits of allowing easy buckets, and Syracuse was able to keep things close by getting layups and free throws. However, the Orange flat out could not shoot the ball from anywhere else. Their first basket from outside the paint came on an fadeaway jumper after ten minutes had already elapsed, and that cold touch allowed the Irish to maintain a small lead for most of the first half.

J.R. Konieczny once again gave the Irish a lift off the bench, and this time it was massive. He scored at all three levels in a nine-point burst that accounted for virtually all of the Irish offense over a four-minute stretch. Worrying his team was scoring too much, Micah Shrewsberry subbed him out for Julian Roper, who opposing teams simply choose not to guard. A woeful stretch of offense ensued, largely keyed by Roper’s poor shooting and court awareness, and there was no scoring until Konieczny came back in for Roper a few minutes later. He got back to work with a paint bucket, and Shrewsberry made a three to extend the lead to 26-19 at the under-4 timeout.

The last four minutes of the half were mostly uneventful and were marked by bad turnovers and horrible free throw shooting. Here was the eventful part:

That dunk brought Konieczny to 13 points, a season high before the halftime horn. Notre Dame led 30-26 at the break.

When play resumed, Davis picked up his third foul, which sent him to the bench shortly after he airballed a three and made a couple free throws after getting fouled on a drive. Both Syracuse and Notre Dame reversed their horrid free throw shooting from the first half, and that’s where all of the scoring took place in the first few minutes until Jaquan Carlos got an easy layup to get the Orange within one. A frustrating shot clock violation followed by a Donnie Freeman layup gave Syracuse its first lead of the game.

Fortunately, it only lasted about ten seconds, as Shrewsberry netted a three on the next possession. On the very next possession, Davis drew a double-team when Shrewsberry slipped a screen, and Davis hit him with more space than he’s had perhaps all season for a second three.

The activity picked up considerably in the next stretch as both teams began collecting fast break points. Davis in particular had a great hustle play that led to a transition bucket. A great look-ahead pass to Kebba Njie was fumbled, but Njie made up for it on the next possession with a put-back dunk. Unfortunately, Davis picked up his fourth foul soon after, triggering the under-12 timeout. He had to head to the bench as Notre Dame nursed a 45-43 lead, which was erased by free throws from the aforementioned foul.

Syracuse soon picked up a bucket at the rim to take the lead, but Konieczny got fouled on a drive to tie it up with free throws, Shrewsberry made a floater, and Matt Allocco, who was apparently playing this whole time, added a free throw to get the Irish lead up to three.

That’s about as much separation as either team could get during the second half, as the game generally stayed within one possession. Syracuse forward Jyare Davis was a pest, scoring nine straight for Syrcause on layups and mid-range jumpers, which prevented the Irish from getting any separation. Neither team could keep the other off the free throw line, which made the game a bit of a slog despite how close it was.

Njie finally provided an answer to Syracuse’s tough buckets under the hoop with a spin-move that resulted in an and-one to give the Irish a three point lead (the maximum allowed) at 59-56. He then played some nice post defense and induced a travel to get the ball back, and Davis re-entered the game with some momentum going Notre Dame’s way at the 5:30 mark. A couple possessions later, Njie swatted Jaquan Carlos’ attempt at a runner as the shot clock expired to complete a pretty effective stretch for him. Notre Dame led 60-58 heading into the final four minutes.

Jyare Davis tied the score shortly after with a tough baby hook over Njie, but the Orange shortly made two brutal mistakes. First, they completely lost Shrewsberry at the three point line again, and Braeden calmly knocked it down. Then Jyare Davis committed a silly foul on Njie after someone else collected a defensive rebound. Njie hit one free throw to give the Irish a 4-point lead, the first time it wasn’t a one-possession game in 13 minutes.

Syracuse proceeded to hit their first three pointer of the game (seriously) when Elijah Moore (no relation) hit one from deep to bring the lead back within one, but Shrewsberry answered right back with another triple. With under a minute left and a three point lead, Notre Dame played a great defensive possession, forcing Syracuse to drain most of the shot clock and inducing a tough contested jumper. Njie got fouled on a strong rebound and made one free throw to stretch the lead to four with just 13 seconds left, effectively ending the game.

Bullet Points:

• One of the toughest defenders Notre Dame faced today was the left sideline. Three Irish players stepped on the line after catching a pass in the first half to account for some silly giveaways.
• Syracuse forward Chris Bell absolutely plowed through Matt Allocco for seemingly no reason early in the second half and got away with a common foul.
• Allocco had a brutal game. He went 0-3 from the field, with as many turnovers (4) as points (4, which he scored on eight free throw attempts).
• The number of airballed threes in this game was absurd.
• Roper got fouled with 6 seconds left in the game and airballed the first free throw.