Facing its first ranked opponent of the season, Notre Dame men's basketball lost its ACC opener Saturday afternoon. The Irish dropped 62-49 at No. 8 Miami, moving to 3-4 on the still-young campaign. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes, despite posting a season-low scoring total, advanced to 6-1 and 4-0 at home in Coral Gables.
Notre Dame did its best work on the offensive glass, securing 15 rebounds on Miami's end of the floor. Sophomore forward Tae Davis paced the interior Irish success, adding 10 boards to 12 points for his first double-double at Notre Dame. However, aside from junior guard J.R. Konieczny, who tallied 15 points on 4-7 shooting from distance, the Irish struggled to score the ball efficiently. Overall, Notre Dame went 18-63 (28.6%) from the field and 6-32 (18.8%) from three-point land.
On the home side, Miami needed only 18 attempts from deep to connect on 7 triples. With a 25-54 (46.3%) showing from the floor, the Hurricanes led from the 6:50 mark until the game's end, riding a 12-0 run before halftime to initially break away from the Irish. Norchad Omier delivered a 13-point, 13-rebound double-double, with Matthew Cleveland (14) and Nijel Pack (13) joining him as double-figure scorers.
“They got a bunch of different guys they can go to and get hot,” head coach Micah Shrewsberry said of the Hurricanes. “Any of those four guards that they play can break you down off the dribble and get into the paint and force those rotations. There's nobody to pick and choose who to rotate from. You gotta rotate from everybody. And when they move it, now you're just scrambling and that's how you've gotta play in college basketball. You've gotta get people scrambling. They have the ability to make you scramble because they've got so many guys that can attack off the bounce.”
Over the game's first 9 minutes, Davis and Konieczny registered each of Notre Dame's first 14 points. The Irish led 12-7 early before pulling ahead at 20-19 on two three-pointers from freshman guard Braeden Shrewsberry. However, Miami then embarked on its aforementioned run, punishing the Irish with its transition game and opening up a 33-22 advantage in the half's final minute.
“We're obviously fighting. You can't doubt our effort. With the young guys, their growth and being able to sustain mental focus — we're sustaining physical effort,” Micah Shrewsberry said. “But we've gotta sustain mental focus for longer periods, longer stretches. And that's where, these last two games, that's where it's gotten us.”
As the halfway point approached, Notre Dame found some reason to believe. Freshman guard Markus Burton made his first bucket on an elbow jumper before inbounding to Davis on a catch-and-shoot play that beat the halftime horn.
Burton, Notre Dame's leading scorer on the season, failed to reach 10 points for the second consecutive game at Miami. But, amidst his 6-point effort on Saturday, moments like that exemplified his ability to diversely impact the game. Burton's head coach cited the Hurricanes' defensive hedge as a challenge for the youngster.
“We ask a lot of [Burton]. You know, Bensley Joseph's a really good defender, where I think some of the shots at the rim Markus usually makes, he challenges those really well,” Shrewsberry said. “But he was more of a how we needed him to play. He had 6 assists, he got it moving, he got other guys shots [and] he got other guys the ball ... He's keeping improving, he's listening, he's competing and we're asking a lot of him playing 33 minutes as a freshman.”
Coming out of the break, both teams traded baskets, allowing Miami to uphold its multi-possession lead. However, another second-chance score from Davis narrowed the gap to 40-34 at the under-16 media timeout.
But that was as close as the Irish would come in the second half. The Hurricanes scored 6 consecutive points to go up 46-34, keeping their lead at 9 points or larger for the remainder of the afternoon.
Still, after Konieczny's second made three of the second half brought the score to 58-49 with 5:21 remaining, Miami's offense stalled out. The Hurricanes posted only 4 points within that final 5:21, handing Notre Dame an engraved invitation back into the game.
And yet, as the final score would indicate, the Irish missed the boat in South Florida. Notre Dame finished the game by missing 10 consecutive shots, each of the last four from behind the three-point line. In the end, the Hurricanes dragged their way to a 13-point win, departing significantly from their scoring average of 86 points per game.
“We can guard them. Even for a group of freshmen and sophomores — I don't know if any of them [are] 21, maybe one of them — but they're believing in what we're talking about. And we're sitting in the stance and guarding,” Coach Shrewsberry said. “Transition killed us. But that's gotta give you some belief, for us to come in here and out-rebound them, we're even in turnovers, we make one less three than them — and we shot a boatload of them — but we shoot more free throws. It's all positive. There ain't no moral victories — let me tell you that much. I wish it would say 'MV' next to it instead of 'L,' but there aren't any. But we gotta learn from this and we gotta keep getting better.”
This week, the Irish will have a chance to tune up for another difficult matchup on the road. Notre Dame will host Western Michigan of the Mid-American Conference on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before playing the road leg of a two-game stretch against Big East teams. The road trip takes the Irish to No. 3 Marquette for a late-night tip on Saturday, as the Golden Eagles look to bounce back from a disappointing, in-state loss at Wisconsin.
In the big picture, Notre Dame will play seven of its next eight games at Purcell Pavilion in South Bend. The Irish will return to ACC action on Dec. 30 against Virginia.
