SOUTH BEND, Ind. – It was starting to feel like three wins in a row for the Notre Dame men’s basketball team on Wednesday night when they hosted NC State inside Purcell Pavilion. The Fighting Irish (6-8, 1-2) had a lead as large as 11 points with 10:15 remaining and six points with just 2:10 left on the lock. However, the Wolfpack (10-3, 2-0) ended the game on an 8-0 run over the final two minutes to escape with the 54-52 victory.
The loss was a hard one to swallow given that Notre Dame held its second straight opponent to just 54 points. In fact, in all three ACC games this year the Irish have held their opponent to significantly under their season average.
NC State shot just 28.8 percent from the field and 3-of-17 from three. A team that ranked 11th in the country in fast-break points, averaging 17 per game, was held to just six tonight. However, the Wolfpack crashed the offensive glass and reeled in 17 offensive boards. They out-rebounded the Irish 42-37 and ultimately took 19 more shot attempts.
Markus Burton paced the offense once again with 18 points to go with his four assists. Kebba Njie grabbed a career best 11 rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
For the second straight game the Irish offense got off to hot start, converting its first five-of-six from the field to jump out to a 12-4 lead (five points each from Burton and Davis) at the 15:42 media timeout.
A 6-0 NC State run cut the lead to 18-12, but the Irish weathered the storm by getting threes from Konieczy and Burton to open it back up at 26-14 with 6:18 left in the opening half.
The Wolfpack threatened with a late first half run, this one being an 8-0 spree over two minutes and thirty seconds that cut the lead to just four points. Yet, the Irish answered with the three ball once more, getting contributions from Shrewsberry and Zona.
Booth would add a layup and the Irish defense would hold to garner a 34-26 halftime lead. The 26 points were the fewest scored by NC State in a first half this season. In addition, the Irish held NC State to its lowest first half shooting percentage as well at 35.5 percent (11-31 FG).
The Irish got the first three points of the second half before missing their next seven shots. Burton ended the drought at the 13:20 mark and then just moments later Zona hit his second trey of the game to make it 44-34.
NC State made just two field goals from 15:09 to the 5:42 mark….