SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (11-15, 5-10) fell 97-73 to the SMU Mustangs (20-6, 11-4) on Wednesday evening in Purcell Pavilion.
Braeden Shrewsberry finished the evening with a team-best 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting from the floor, knocking down 5-8 from deep. It marked his fourth 20+ point performance of the season and seventh of his career.
Tae Davis followed him with 13 points and led in rebounds with five. Davis was 5-8 from the field.
Freshman Garrett Sundra tied his career high of 11 points. He was 3-4 from the field, 2-3 from deep and 3-3 from the free-throw line. Fellow freshman Sir Mohammed started in his fifth straight game and tallied eight points, two rebounds and two assists.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish struggled to score in the first half as they trailed 20-5 early, shooting 1-for-9 with six turnovers in the first 10:00 of play.
Mohammad knocked down the second Irish field goal of the night at 9:26 in hopes to spark the Irish offense. Later on, Shrewsberry recorded a stretch in which he scored seven of their next 10 points, making it a 42-21 ballgame with 2:29 remaining.
However, the Irish trailed 50-25 heading into halftime as SMU shot a blistering 72.4 percent, going 21-for-29 from the floor.
The Irish were just 7-22 from the field in the first half. Shrewsberry led the offensive charge with 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting and a perfect 4-4 from the charity stripe.
Notre Dame and SMU opened up the second-period exchanging baskets as the margin stayed at 25 points at 63-38 with 14:55 remaining. The Mustangs would go on to take their largest lead of the night as Notre Dame trailed by 34 at 82-48.
The Irish offense ultimately found its way in the second half, edging SMU 48-47. Notre Dame received a spark from Sundra who scored all 11 of his points in the second half. As a team, Notre Dame shot 48.5 percent in the second half.
UP NEXT
The Irish conclude their three-game homestand with Pitt on Saturday at 2:15 p.m. ET on the CW. That game is presented by Beacon Health System.
– ND –