ATHENS, Ga. – The script for tonight’s Georgia game was almost identical to the Creighton one for the Notre Dame men’s basketball team. In both games, the Irish rallied down 17 but just didn’t have enough to push through to escape with a victory. The Fighting Irish (4-5) recorded season lows in both points and shooting percentage (.365) in tonight’s loss to the Bulldogs (8-1) in what was the second annual SEC/ACC Challenge.
Two Irish finished in double figures with Tae Davis and Braeden Shrewsberry tallying 14 points each. Davis shot 5-of-13 from the field and grabbed a co-team-best six rebounds alongside Matt Allocco – the latter dished out a team-best three assists. Shrewsberry shot 6-of-16 and went 2-for-7 from deep.
For Shrewsberry, it marked a career-best five straight games in double figures.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish were off to a strong defensive start as they held the Bulldogs scoreless through the first 4:30 of play with Notre Dame leading 6-0 at the first media timeout.
While the Bulldogs came out of the timeout scoring on back-to-back possessions, Garrett Sundra immediately responded with one from deep to keep the Irish in front 9-5.
Soon after, the Bulldogs went on an 8-0 run to claim a 13-9 lead and force a Notre Dame timeout with 11:02 remaining in the half. The run would continue as the Bulldogs put up 13 unanswered points to make it 18-9 before back-to-back baskets from Tae Davis would make it 18-14.
The Bulldogs would go on another 8-0 to go up 31-18, but back-to-back finishes at the rim from Kebba Njie and Tae Davis brought the Irish within 9 at 31-22 with 1:05 left in the first half. Georgia would capitalize on an and-one opportunity to extend their lead to 34-22 at the half.
Georgia shot 15-for-32 from the field (.469) and owned a 24-14 points in the paint advantage. Notre Dame shot 9-of-25 (.360) and just 1-of-10 from three. Tae Davis had 11 of the team’s 22 points.
The Bulldogs extended their lead to 17 at the 18:30 mark of the second period. The Irish responded with a 10-0 run with a bucket from Njie, triples from Shrewsberry and Allocco, and a reverse layup from Nikita Konstantynovskyi.
Konstantynovskyi came out of the timeout with a huge and-one, followed by a layup from Allocco to bring Notre Dame within four at 43-39.
The game was within reach and for the taking, but in a blink of an eye it wasn’t. The Bulldogs responded with a 9-2 run to make it an 11 point ballgame at 52-41 to force the Irish timeout.
The Irish offense had one last spurt trailing 57-42, as Shrewsberry banked in a three and followed it with a strong finish at the rim to close the gap to 10 with 4:24 remaining. That would mark Notre Dame’s last made field goal as Georgia closed out the 69-48 win.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Irish are back in action on Saturday, Dec. 7 as they open up ACC play with the Syracuse Orange (4-3) at Purcell Pavilion. Tip off is set for noon. The program is encouraging all fans to wear green for the game.
– ND –