Notre Dame loses a 66-65 heartbreaker to NC State
If lightning and heartbreak can strike twice in five days, it happened to Notre Dame between Saturday and Wednesday.
After losing a last-second, one-point thriller at home to North Carolina on Saturday, the Irish traveled to NC State on Wednesday, led most of the game, but didn’t score in the last 2:06 and fell 66-65 to the Wolfpack.
The loss was the third straight for Notre Dame (7-8, 1-3 ACC) and it broke a two-game losing streak for NC State (9-6, 2-2 ACC)
Here’s what we learned.
Inability to close
In a game that featured 11 lead changes — most early on and then late — the Irish built a 33-23 lead shortly before halftime, and still held a 63-56 advantage with 3:36 left in the game.
That’s when things got away.
The Wolfpack stormed back — with the help of some sketchy Irish shot selection — and finished the game on a 10-2 run to keep Notre Dame from winning only their second ACC road game in the last 23 tries.
It was the second straight one-point heartbreaking loss and it dropped Notre Dame to 1-4 this season in games decided by 5 points or fewer.
The Irish offense froze down the stretch and launched frantic three pointers — one by Markus Burton, one by Braeden Shrewsberry — on two straight possessions with the shot clock winding down.
The Wolfpack scored after both of those Irish bad possessions.
With Wolfpack up 66-65, and Notre Dame inbounding from the sideline with 8.3 seconds left, Burton took the inbound, made a strong move to the right elbow, created a clean but difficult look to win the game, but missed the shot.
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Encouraging news
If there is any good news to take out of another bad night it came from the play of Kebba Njie and Tae Davis.
Both junior forwards were active and critical to keep Notre Dame in the lead for 26:32 of the game, especially considering Burton and Shrewsberry combined for only 10-of-27 shooting and 5-of-14 from long range.
Davis finished with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting, with 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
Njie recorded a double-double with 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting and 11 rebounds.
Notre Dame put all five of its starters in double figures.
Burton led the team with 15 points. Shrewsberry added 13 and graduate guard Matt Allocco scored 11 on 3-of-4 three-point shooting.
Statistically speaking
Not surprisingly, this game was played on, and decided by, lopsided scoring streaks.
The Irish trailed 23-22 in the first half, then hit 9 of 11 shots and went on a 11-3 scoring run to take a 33-26 halftime lead.
NC State methodically took a 54-53 lead before the Irish stretched it out to a seemingly comfortable 63-56 advantage that didn’t end up holding up.
All other stats being essentially equal, the Wolfpack used a 12-2 advantage on bench points, a 15-2 advantage on fast-break points, and a 9-2 advantage off of turnover points to find the winning one-point margin.
