SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team led for just two minutes against Georgia Tech on Tuesday night but it was the all-important final two minutes, as they battled back to take it 71-68. The Fighting Irish (10-10, 4-5) recorded a 13-0 run on the Yellow Jackets (9-12, 3-7) from 5:23-0:18 to put away their second straight ACC win.
Sophomore sensation Markus Burton led the second half charge, where he scored 18 of his 26 points. Burton was tremendous from three for the second straight game, once agian tying his career high of four made triples (4-5). Burton has now drained 8-11 from deep over the last two games. The Mishawaka native also produced four assists and three steals.
Burton also accomplished a rare feat tonight by recording his fifth straight game of 20 or more points. That hasn’t been accomplished by an Irish player since Ben Hansborough in February of 2011.
The other Irish player in double figures was fellow sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry who netted 15 points on 5-11 shooting. Also worth noting since it was arguably the biggest bucket of the night since the game was on the line was Kebba Njie’s big layup with 37 seconds left. Njie finished with six points and a team high nine boards.
Notre Dame made double digit treys for the third time over the last five games, converting 10-23. They entered tonight leading the ACC in three-point shooting percentage in league play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a slow offensive start for the Irish as they trailed 7-4 at the first media timeout with first points coming off of an Allocco free throw and Njie three. A Burton trey brought Notre Dame within one at 16-15, but costly turnovers made it tough for the Irish to pull ahead.
Back-to-back buckets from Konieczny were broken up by a pair of Georgia Tech threes, but a Roper trey and Shrewsberry jumpshot closed the gap to two with just under 2:30 remaining.
The squads exchanged baskets to make it 37-34 heading into the final media timeout and the Irish were looking to even the score. Allocco ran off a Shrewsberry screen to get one last shot off from behind the arc and drained it as the time expired to make it a level 37-37 heading into the second half.
The Irish shot 52% from the floor and 50% from deep, going 7-14 from three in the first 20 minutes of play. The Yellow Jackets shot 50% from the floor and 40% (4-10) from three. Shrewsberry led the offensive charge with nine points, followed by Burton with eight.
Georgia Tech opened the half with a 6-0 run to take a 43-37 advantage. While the Irish were held scoreless through the first five minutes, the offense was sparked by back-to-back Burton jumpers, leading to an 8-2 run to tie it up at 45-all to force a Yellow Jacket timeout.
The Yellow Jackets started to pull away but six straight points from Burton allowed the Irish to hang around. Konstantynovskyi continued to be aggressive at the rim, scoring a jumper in the paint to bring Notre Dame back within four at 59-55 with 6:51 remaining.
Still within four, Allocco found Burton at the top of the arc and when the Irish needed it most, Burton knocked down the three with 2:21 left to make it a one-point game 62-61 as the Irish were still looking to take their first lead of the game.
And just like that, he did it again. Burton knocked down another three on the following possession to give Notre Dame the lead 64-62.
With 36 seconds remaining, Njie had a big-time finish at the rim to put the Irish up four at 66-62. From there, Davis and Shrewsberry closed it out from the free-throw line.
UP NEXT
The Irish are back on the road this weekend as they take on MIami (4-16, 0-9) on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. ET. The Florida trip continues as they then head to Tallahassee to take on Florida State (13-7, 4-5) on Tuesday, Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. ET.
– ND –