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Cole Certa's last-minute three lifts Notre Dame over Stanford

IMG_7504by:Jack Soble•about 13 hours•

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Notre Dame guard Cole Certa. (Matt Cashore-Imagn Images)

Cole Certa drifted back toward his own baseline as his corner three with 20 seconds left and Notre Dame trailing Stanford by 1 sailed through the air. He had a pretty good idea where it would end up.

The bench behind him erupted when he was proven right.

Certa drained the three-pointer off a pass from junior forward Tae Davis, as the Irish used junior guard Markus Burton as a decoy to create space. Star Stanford center Maxime Raynaud helped on Davis, thinking he wouldn’t give the ball up.

When he did, Raynaud made a beeline to Certa and put all of his 7-foot-1 frame between the freshman and the basket. It was too late. The shot hit the bottom of the net, and Notre Dame beat Stanford 56-54.

After the Cardinal’s last-second shot attempt bounced off the rim, graduate student guard Matt Allocco embraced Certa. In a disappointing season, the latter has been a bright spot over the past two weeks. Now, he helped the Irish clinch a spot in the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament (the bottom-three teams in the league don’t make it).

The Irish improved to 13-17 (7-12 ACC) and punched their ticket to Charlotte next week.

Things started slowly for Notre Dame, who scored 21 points in the first half. The last time they faced Stanford in a football game, the Irish also scored 21 points in the first half.

Notre Dame began Wednesday night’s game 2-of-8 from the free-throw line, and they finished the first half 6-of-24 (25 percent) from the field. Stanford was somehow worse, shooting 7-of-30 from the field before the break, but they got better looks that weren’t falling.

For the Irish, it was possession after possession of abysmal offensive basketball. Open shots were extremely hard to come by. Bad ones toward the end of the shot clock were much more common.

Fans who made the trip at 9 p.m. ET on a weeknight to Purcell Pavilion were treated to an ugly contest. It looked like it would only get worse for the home team, but with a 9-point deficit midway through the second half, something clicked.

The Irish went on a 15-0 run, which included a five-point possession. Junior forward Kebba Njie dunked on Raynaud, drawing a foul in the process. He missed the free throw, but Davis corralled the rebound and kicked it out to an open Allocco.

Allocco, who missed 7 of the past eight games with a wrist injury, hit nothing but twine from beyond the arc.

Sophomore guard Markus Burton scored the game’s next 6 points, and he finished with 24.

Just as it seemed the Irish were set to pull away, Stanford went on an 8-0 run of its own to take a 2-point lead with 1:18 to go. However, Certa’s shot ultimately proved to be the difference.

Notre Dame will close out the regular season against California at 4 p.m. ET on Saturday. Certa ensured that the 2024-25 campaign will not end there.

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