The Notre Dame men’s basketball team dropped its fifth straight game on Tuesday night, as it fell to the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens by a score of 69-48.
The Irish offense struggled mightily once again in the absence of preseason All-ACC First Team selection Markus Burton. Prior to injuring his knee in last Tuesday’s overtime loss to Rutgers, the sophomore guard had averaged over 20 points per game. Princeton graduate transfer guard Matt Allocco had shouldered much of the scoring load in the backcourt, averaging nearly 15 points in the three-game Players Era Festival last week in Last Vegas.
After the Irish ran out to a 6-0 advantage over the first four minutes inside Stegeman Coliseum for the opening battle of the ACC/SEC Challenge, head coach Mike White’s Georgia defense suffocated Allocco, holding the Irish’s on-court leader to just five points on 2-for-8 shooting in his 38 minutes of action. The Irish managed just 10 points over the succeeding 10 minutes, and behind the efficient play of wings Asa Newell and Dakota Leffew, the Bulldogs opened up a 22-14 lead.
Notre Dame coupled six turnovers with an abysmal 9-for-25 shooting mark from the field in the first half, and Georgia held a 34-22 advantage as the sides headed into the locker room.
Sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry was able to break out of his shooting slump early in the second half as the Irish’s best perimeter shooter led a 10-0 run to claw within four points. Graduate transfer forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi also scored all five of his points during the surge, and freshman forward Garrett Sundra provided the best minutes of his young career, knocking down a pair of shots and pulling in two rebounds.
The wheels would begin to fall off on both ends of the court for Notre Dame, however, as Leffew converted on his fourth triple of the evening before Newell took over the Bulldog attack, ballooning the Georgia lead to 15 with five minutes to play.
The steady play of graduate transfer point guard Tyrin Lawrence saw the Bulldogs to the finish line, despite a brief Irish run cutting the lead to 11. Lawrence, a four year starter at Vanderbilt, finished with seven points and sevent assists to complement his +25 plus/minus. Newell recorded the second double-double of his freshman campaign, tallying 20 points and 11 rebounds. Leffew added 16 points and four rebounds in the winning effort.
It was yet another disappointing night for Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry and company, with the shooting woes continuing to the tune of 4-for-19 from beyond the arc, causing the Irish to score their fewest points since a 65-45 home loss to The Citadel last Dec. 19. Braeden Shrewsberry and junior forward Tae Davis led the way with 14 points apiece, as no other player scored more than five. Notre Dame also tallied just five assists to Georgia’s 19 while also being outrebounded 40-27 by the Bulldogs.
The Irish return to action this Saturday, when they welcome the Syracuse Orange to Purcell Pavilion for the ACC regular-season opener. Led by second-year head coach Red Autry, Syracuse will enter the contest at 4-3, directly following a 26-point drubbing at the hands of Tennessee in the ACC/SEC Challenge. Saturday will be the first of four Irish Wear Green games for the 2024-25 season, with tip-off set for noon and The CW holding broadcast rights.
