PALO ALTO, Calif. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (10-4, 1-0) opened up ACC play with a 47-40 win over the Stanford Cardinal (11-3, 0-1 ) as their suffocating defensive performance secured their tenth win of the season. Maples Pavilion has been a tough venue to earn a road win, for Stanford was 24-5 at home since the start of the 2024-25 season, with just one ACC home loss before tonight.
The Irish held the Cardinal to their lowest scoring output of the season at 40 points, with their previous low being 69 against Seattle. It also marked their third-lowest scoring output since 1996.
Stanford finished the night shooting 23 percent from the floor (13-56) and 13 percent from three (4-30). Furthermore, the Irish defense held Stanford’s best scorer in check tonight. Ebuka Okorie, who averaged 22.8 points heading into tonight, was held to a season low seven points.
Struggling to shoot from the perimeter, the Irish shot 32 percent from the floor (18-56) and 19 percent from three (3-16) with 30 of their 47 points scored in the paint.
Notre Dame dominated the glass 48-36 with 16 offensive rebounds leading to 12 second-chance points.
Freshman guard Jalen Haralson led the offensive charge with 13 points, his 12th straight game in double figures. He was followed by graduate Carson Towt, who finished with 8 points and recorded his eighth game with double-digit rebounds this season (10).
Sophomore Garrett Sundra also tallied 8 points, with two big-time late second half threes for the Irish as he was 2-3 from behind the arc.
Freshman Brady Koehler finished with 7 points and 2 rebounds on 3-5 shooting in just 8 minutes of play.
Senior Kebba Njie also poured in 9 rebounds and 4 points for the Irish.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Carson Towt would put the Irish on the board, scoring their first four points of the night before the Irish went on a 2:40 scoring drought to put the Cardinal up 10-4. The Stanford run was broken up by a Kebba Njie dunk to make it a 6-10 ballgame heading into the first media timeout.
The Njie dunk would spark a 10-0 run across six minutes of play with buckets coming from Haralson, Towt, and Njie to give Notre Dame a 14-10 advantage.
Defensively, the Irish held the Cardinal scoreless for over seven and a half minutes. Scoring at 16:08, Stanford finally scored again at the 8:19 mark to make it 14-12.
A jumper from Sundra and a free throw from Haralason extended the Irish lead to five at 17-12 at 7:13.
Three Cole Certa free throws and a finish at the rim from Haralson would close out the half as the Irish led 22-17 at halftime. Haralson led all scorers with seven points.
While this is Notre Dame’s lowest offensive output in the first half this season (25 vs. Houston), they also held Stanford to their lowest scoring half of the season (31 vs. Minnesota). Despite Stanford starting the night 4-4 from the floor, they finished the half shooting 3-22.
Both teams shot 27 percent from the floor in the first half and while the Irish are averaging 9.1 threes per game, they were 0-7 from deep compared to Stanford’s 2-15 from three. With both teams struggling to shoot from behind the perimeter in the half, 16 of Notre Dame’s 22 points came from the paint.
A Towt dunk would open up the half with a Cardinal trey following shortly after to keep it a two-possession game at 24-20.
Five straight points from Haralson, which included an and-one finish at the rim, would allow the Irish to start to separate themselves with their largest lead of the night so far at 29-20.
Brady Koehler knocked down the first Irish three of the night to make it a 10-0 run from Notre Dame as the Cardinal were stuck in a 7.5-minute period without a made field goal.
Stanford knocked down two free throws to cut the deficit to 12 at 34-22, but the Irish responded immediately with two more back-to-back buckets from Koehler as the freshman scored seven straight points for the Irish to make it 38-22.
Stanford responded with a 5-0 run, all thanks to Ebuka Okorie, which cut it to 11 and forced a Notre Dame timeout. The Stanford scoring frenzy continued, turning into a 13-1 run to cut it to four at 39-35 with 5:52 remaining.
Desperately needing a bucket, Sundra hit a huge three to extend the Irish lead and stop the Stanford run. While the Cardinal answered with a three of their own, it was back-to-back clutch threes from Sundra that made it a seven-point ballgame again at 4:15.
Costly Irish turnovers allowed the Cardinal to hang around as a pair of Stanford free throws brought them within five at 45-40 with 2:43 remaining.
A two-possession game in the closing minutes turned into a three-possession game in the final 20 seconds as Stanford was in a must-foul situation. Sending Certa to the line, he knocked down both to remain a perfect 5-5 on the night and 27-27 on the season from the charity stripe.
The Irish closed it out for their tenth win of the season as they defeated the Cardinal 47-40 in their ACC opener.
UP NEXT
The Irish will immediately bus to Berkeley after tonight’s game and spend their New Years there before clashing with Cal on January 2. That contest will tip at 11 p.m. ET on ESPN2.
– ND –