Observations: Notre Dame misses last-minute chance to pull out win in loss at Florida State

Notre Dame will return from its two-game swing in the Southeast without a win. The Irish lost to Florida State 73-72 Wednesday, their third straight defeat and fourth in the last five games.

Guard JJ Starling led Notre Dame (7-5, 0-2 ACC) with 20 points. Guard Cormac Ryan had 14, and forward Nate Laszewski added 12. The Irish shot 50.9 percent from the field and 47.4 percent on 3-pointers. Florida State (4-10, 2-1) shot 47.4 percent.

Here are some observations from the game.

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End of game goes wrong

Notre Dame, even after a lackluster performance, still gave itself a chance to win in the final 40 seconds. A puzzling decision and a moment of non-execution, though, prevented them from ever taking one last shot.

Starling’s layup with 37 seconds left pulled the Irish within a point. Brey elected not to foul Florida State, even though the Irish would have no more than seven seconds to run a play if they forced a shot clock violation. Sure enough, Notre Dame successfully defended for entire 30 seconds, giving it the ball with 6.5 seconds to go.

One problem, though. Florida State only had committed four fouls. It could foul and make Notre Dame inbound twice more. The same situation played out Dec. 3 in a 62-61 loss to Syracuse, when the Irish had 14 seconds to try and take the lead. They produced only a frantic corner 3-point attempt at the buzzer because the Orange could foul three times without sending them to the free throw line.

Florida State surprisingly did not foul, but Notre Dame couldn’t capitalize. Guard Trey Wertz’s pass from the backcourt sailed past Ryan, the inbounder who had several feet of separation from his defender and was sprinting down the middle of the court.

“I thought Trey’s read on the cut by Cormac was great,” head coach Mike Brey said. “He just threw it a little long. We had a chance. We couldn’t finish it.”

Experimenting on defense

Notre Dame had to try something different on defense after allowing at least 75 points in three straight games. The Irish did make a change Wednesday by opening the game in a 2-3 zone, a possibility Brey discussed before the team left on its two-game trip. They used it for the first 13 minutes of the game before flipping back to man, but went back to it on the last few possessions of the first half.

Notre Dame mixed man and zone in the second half, but settled into the zone down the stretch. Part of sticking with zone late in the game was to protect Laszewski, who committed his fourth foul with 10:23 left.

The results were mixed. Notre Dame held Florida State scoreless for a 3:30 stretch early in the first half and kept the ball out of the middle. The Seminoles found some cracks, though, to get some clean looks at the basket. The Irish scrapped the zone in the first half one play after they lost track of guard Caleb Mills and gave up an uncontested cut to the basket.

Florida State was 7-of-22 on three-pointers, which wasn’t enough on its own to force Notre Dame to go to man full time. Forward Cameron Corhen, though, was a nuisance in the middle. He ended the game with 18 points and 2 assists, with a few of those baskets coming on drives after he caught the ball in the middle of the floor against the zone. He was 8-of-9 on two-pointers.

The Irish found enough stretches of success with the zone to keep it in game plans. They aren’t in position to overlook anything that can help on defense.

Goodwin goes quiet

Notre Dame produced its first sufficient offensive output against a high-major team since beating Michigan State Nov. 30. The Irish committed only seven turnovers and scored on 10 straight possessions in the first half. Their shooting percentages were consistent in both halves.

Not part of it? Guard Dane Goodwin, who had just 2 points on 1-of-4 shooting in 37 minutes. He didn’t attempt a shot in the first half and didn’t score until less than eight minutes remained. He passed up a couple opportunities for 3-pointers and attempted one shot from beyond the arc. He had the ball poked out from behind, though it ended up out of bounds and was not a turnover.

Goodwin is shooting 31 percent (13 for 42) in December and has not cracked double figures in his last four games. Notre Dame’s offense is at its best when it’s generating rhythm 3-pointers for him. He’s also one of the Irish’s better post-up creators with his turnaround jumper. Both have been too infrequent recently.