Wake Forest led by a 74-71 score with 12 seconds remaining. Notre Dame, which entered the game on Saturday at 3-9 in games decided by eight points or less, needed a 3-pointer to force overtime.
Leading scorer Markus Burton, 29 points already to his name, had a look. Then freshman sharpshooter Cole Certa. Junior forward Tae Davis, the Robin to Burton’s Batman, let one fly as well.
All three of the shots, however, missed. And so went yet another close loss for the Notre Dame men’s basketball team Saturday evening in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Finishing the regular season 3-12 away from Purcell Pavilion, the Irish dropped to 12-17 (6-12 ACC) with a 74-71 defeat to Wake Forest (20-9, 12-6 ACC).
It was also another game in which the Irish coughed up a lead of 10 points or more. Notre Dame, once again playing without graduate guard Matt Allocco (game-to-game, wrist) and sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry (out for the season, abdomen), found success in the early minutes against a Wake Forest team perhaps looking ahead to Monday’s clash with Duke. Graduate guard Nikita Konstantynovskyi made the start and opened up space for Davis, who led the Irish out to a 20-10 advantage at the under-8 media timeout.
Both teams would go on runs from there to end the first half. Notre Dame’s shot-making and ball control slipped coming out of the aforementioned timeout, as the Demon Deacons scored 10 consecutive points and eventually claimed a 23-22 lead on Cameron Hildreth’s triple. The Irish punched back, however, as Burton and Certa each nailed trifectas of their own to pace Notre Dame on an 8-2 run. The blue and gold would enter halftime with more turnovers (12) than made field goals (11), but in possession of a 30-25 edge.
Notre Dame would keep Wake Forest at arm’s length to open the second half, as senior guard Julian Roper II provided a spark off the bench with a couple of successful jumpers. Burton’s pull-up coming out of the under-12 timeout on the floor gave the Irish a 49-40 lead, their largest of the second half. The sophomore guard’s success continued over the next four minutes, as he tallied four consecutive points heading into the under-8 break and kept the Irish ahead at 58-51. At that point, Notre Dame was shooting better than 70% from the field in the second half.
The switch then flipped in the wrong direction for the Irish offense, which scored three points in the ensuing three minutes. Wake Forest got the game tied up at 60 on a 3-point make from Juke Harris and took the lead at 62-61 on a Hunter Sallis second-chance jump shot. With four minutes to play on the road, Notre Dame trailed for the first time in a while.
The Irish would briefly tie the game at 62 on a Davis free throw, but Wake Forest took the upper hand to follow on Hildreth’s basket and foul. Over the next two minutes, both teams traded 2-point possessions, keeping the Irish within a single point. However, Wake Forest moved into a 72-68 advantage with 53 seconds left thanks to senior forward J.R. Konieczny’s foul of a 3-point-shooting Hildreth.
With 46 seconds to play, Konieczny would compound the mistake with a miss at the free-throw line, leaving Burton unable to level the score with his two made foul shots in the final 13 seconds. Immediately after that, Sallis converted Wake Forest’s final two free throws, setting up a final possession full of near game-tying makes for Notre Dame.
Burton paced the Irish with 29 points, leading Notre Dame in scoring for the ninth consecutive road game. Despite turning the rock over six times, he was excellent from the charity stripe, making nine of his 10 foul shots and adding four assists. Davis backed him up with 15 points and seven rebounds, while junior forward Kebba Njie posted 10 points and Certa added eight in 12 minutes off the bench.
Per usual, Hildreth and Sallis handled the lion’s share of Demon Deacon scoring, with the former delivering 28 points with six boards and three steals at 10-of-14 shooting. Sallis provided 17 points, matching Hildreth with a 7-for-7 effort at the free-throw line.
Overall, Notre Dame needed to be better at the line, especially down the stretch. The Irish left eight total points on the table with their misses, making 18 of their 26 total shots and 14 of their 21 in the second half. Wake Forest, meanwhile, did not miss at any point, connecting on 19 of 19 and draining all 17 attempts after halftime.
Still two games clear of the cut line for the ACC Tournament, the Irish will finish the regular season this week with two home games. Notre Dame will take on Stanford at 9 p.m. on Wednesday before battling Cal at 4 p.m. on Saturday.
