SOUTH BEND, Ind. – ‘Faith over doubt.’ Glenn & Stacey Murphy Notre Dame Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry preached this to his squad after the Duke game. The Fighting Irish (8-9, 2-4) kept the faith and got back into the win column with a 78-60 victory over the Boston College Eagles (9-8, 1-5)
“Really proud of the guys for keeping the faith,” Coach Shrewsberry said. “Even though this one was choppy and back and forth early on, we buckled down and made plays when we needed to. Shout out to Roper and Kebba and their hustle plays throughout the game.”
Tae Davis led the Irish in scoring for the seventh time this season, pouring in 26 points, which was one shy of his career high. It marked his fourth game of 20+ in the last seven matchups. Davis shot 9-14 from the field and 8-9 from the free-throw line. Another MVP was Julian Roper II who led the team in +/- today with +26.
Markus Burton supplied 20 points on 5-15 shooting, plus 9-10 from the stripe. Kebba Njie nearly got another double-double with 11 points and nine rebounds. Matt Allocco also finished in double figures with 13 points on 5-8 shooting.
Notre Dame cleaned up their turnovers in the second half. After committing nine turnovers in the first half, they only coughed it up once in the second. The Irish tied their season high in offensive boards (17) and recorded a season best in second-chance points (25).
Defensively, the Irish achieved a season high in steals with 13. They were led by a season high of four from Burton.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was back and forth action to start, with neither team being able to pull away by more than six in the first half. Costly turnovers from the Irish left them down four at 22-18 with 5:50 remaining.
Down three at 30-27, the Irish would go on a 11-2 run sparked by four straight Markus Burton free throws. He was followed by baskets from Allocco and Davis to give the Irish the largest lead of the half as they were up 36-30 before an Eagles three-pointer at the buzzer cut the lead to three heading into halftime.
Davis was the lone Irish in double figures at the break with 11 points on 4-5 shooting. Burton followed right behind with nine points. As a team, ND shot 12-27 (.444) from the floor.
Boston College entered tonight’s matchup averaging 6.0 made threes per game. By 17:23 in the second half they had drained their seventh and were 7-12 from deep, giving them a 44-40 lead.
The Irish finally earned a little separation with just under 9:30 remaining. It started with Roper II and Davis who injected some life into the team and crowd. Roper II made the extra effort to chase down a rebound then dished to Davis who completed an and-one. Next possession, Allocco converted a long two and was fouled and finished off his and-one for the 56-48 advantage. The duo of Davis and Allocco spurred an 8-0 run over two minutes.
Roper II, Burton and Davis kept the offense churning and extended the ND scoring run to 20-4, pushing the lead to double digits up 66-52 with 3:20 remaining.
Four straight free throws from Davis and Burton coupled with a Davis and-one put the Irish up 16 to make it 73-57 with 1:35 left. The Eagles would knock down one last three, but a Davis jumper and Njie trey would close it out as the Irish secured the 18-point win 78-60.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame will be living life on the road. In fact, four of the next five contests are away from Purcell Pavilion. First, the Irish will travel to New York to clash with Syracuse on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 4 p.m. ET on ACC Network. Then ND will have their mid-week bye and return to action on Jan. 25 at Virginia.
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