SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Notre Dame Men’s Basketball opened up its 2025 season with an 89-67 win over Long Island University inside Purcell Pavilion on Monday evening.
Sophomore Markus Burton led the offensive charge with 24 points, shooting 7-13 from the floor and 8-9 from the charity stripe.
Graduate transfer Carson Towt picked up right where he left off as the country’s leading rebounder last season as he tied his career-high 19 rebounds in his Irish debut. That number set a new record for an Irish debut performance.
The Irish finished with 11 different players in the box score, with 52 of their 89 points coming from the bench.
One of those bench sparks was sophomore guard Cole Certa who delivered a career high performance. The Illinois native dropped 22 points on 6-9 shooting from beyond the arc.
Freshman Ryder Frost had the hot-hand in the second half, shooting an impressive 5-6 from the floor and 4-5 from behind the arc for 15 points in his freshman debut.
Braeden Shrewsberry, Logan Imes, and Carson Towt each finished with three assists as Notre Dame totaled 15 on the night.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish got off to a quick 13-2 lead as Burton and Haralson combined for the first 10 points, followed by a Sundra three-pointer. They also got great rebounding production from Towt, who had five boards by the first media timeout.
Notre Dame ultimately fired off an 18-3 scoring run to go up 22-5 by the 13:03 mark. Certa helped ignite the back half of the run with two triples in a two-minute span.
Both teams hit a drought in the final 6:45 of play in the first half. Defensively, the Irish were able to hold the Sharks to 1-10 from the field. Offensively, however, the Irish shot 2-10 during the same stretch, with a three-pointer coming from Certa and a layup from Burton.
As a result, the Irish led 40-25 heading into the second half with Burton and Certa leading all scorers with 11 points apiece. Towt posted an impressive 12 rebounds in the first half alone. Njie supplied eight points, giving the Irish 22 points off the bench.
At 16:22, a Burton three-pointer pushed the Irish lead to above 20. Soon after, it started to rain from Purcell Pavilion with a big thanks to Ryder Frost. The freshman converted three triples in a three-minute timeframe to keep the Sharks at bay with the Irish up 67-47 with just under 10 minutes remaining. It capped a Notre Dame 5-6 shooting stretch from the field.
The Sharks momentarily chipped away at the lead, recording an 11-3 run over 3.5 minutes, taking advantage of six ND turnovers in that span. That spree sparked a Coach Shrewsberry timeout with the lead down to 70-57 with 6:06 remaining.
Enter Certa, who stepped up in that moment of need, draining his sixth three-pointer of the game, driving his in-game total to 22 points. Moments later, Burton came off the bench with four fouls and immediately converted an and-one to push the Irish lead back up to 19 at 79-60 at 4:18.
The Sharks responded with a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 14, but Notre Dame kept their foot on the gas. The Irish went on an 8-0 run of their own with half of those points coming from the hot second-half hand of Frost.
LIU scored just one jumpshot in the final three minutes as a pair of Burton free throws would seal the deal on the season-opening win at Purcell, 89-67.
UP NEXT
It’ll be a special game on Friday night inside Purcell Pavilion when the Irish host Detroit Mercy. For the first time, the black ‘The Bend’ jerseys will make their debut. You won’t want to miss it.
– ND –