LAS VEGAS – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team didn’t capture an upset victory against one of the top teams in the country on Wednesday at the Players Era, but they definitely lived up to their moniker and displayed some tremendous fight in the second half against No. 2/3 Houston (7-1). The Fighting Irish (5-3) fell into a 22-point hole in the first half after a cold shooting start, but rallied to make it a four point ballgame with 10.5 minutes remaining in the game.
The commonality between the Kansas loss and this one was that the threes weren’t falling. Versus Kansas, Notre Dame was 4-24, and against Houston, the Irish were 6-28.
Markus Burton led Notre Dame in scoring for all three games in Vegas, including today in which he dropped 19 points on 6-14 shooting. Burton grabbed a season high seven rebounds and tied his season high of five assists.
Over the three Players Era games, Burton averaged 21.3 ppg on 53.3 percent shooting. He recorded 16 rebounds, 11 assists and six steals.
Freshman Jalen Haralson kept his double-digit scoring streak alive with 14 on Wednesday. The guard was 4-8 from the field and 6-8 from the free-throw line.
Junior Logan Imes supplied great minutes as well, leading the way in the +/- category at +10.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Notre Dame started a cold 2-13 from the field, while Houston opened 7-14 shooting to explode out to a 16-2 lead.
Houston’s Emmanuel Sharp and Milos Uzan led the barrage, each totaling 11 points in the first half, each converting three triples. The Cougars lead grew as large as 22, up 29-7 at 7:49.
The Irish had a late first half charge, outscoring Houston 18-10 for the remainder of the first half. Haralson scored five straight from the stripe; then, Certa and Burton and Imes each knocked down threes. All-in-all, the Irish cut it to 25-39 at halftime.
Fast forward to 14:31 in the second and an Irish 10-0 run over 2:15 pulled ND to within four. An Imes three-pointer kickstarted the scoring spree as Burton, Towt and Haralson all got in on the action.
So now it’s 46-50 with 10:31 left in the game. Houston went on to win the game 56-66 and made just one field goal for the remainder of the game; however, they went 14-16 from the free-throw line. On the flip side, the Irish went 3-10 from the field in the final 10 minutes.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Irish return home to Purcell Pavilion to host its first ACC/SEC Challenge game. The Mizzou Tigers come to South Bend on Tuesday, Dec. 2, for a 9 p.m. ET tip on ESPNU.
– ND –