LAS VEGAS – It was already Thanksgiving morning back home in South Bend when Notre Dame men’s basketball tipped off against No. 6/7 Houston (10:11 pm PT tip). The Fighting Irish (4-3) held the Cougars (4-2) to a season low in points; however, when the game was up for grabs in the second half, Notre Dame only mustered 10 points in the final 10 minutes.
Junior forward Tae Davis led the Irish in scoring with 22 points on 9-of-15 shooting. It marked his second 20+ point peformance of the seaosn. He also tallied a team-high eight rebounds and a team-high four assists.
Sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry was the lone other Irish in double-figures with 16 points behind four made triples.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half featured hot shooting spurts from Houston mixed in with great defensive stretches from the Irish. Notre Dame shot 10-of-20 (.500) in the first half but Houston shot a hot 17-of-29 (.586). Despite that, Notre Dame stayed within single digits at the half only down eight at 31-39.
Houston jumped out to a 6-0 start until Shrewsberry, Davis and Njie got the offense going to tie the game at 10-all at 14:02. The Cougars then fired off a 5-0, countered by a Davis three-pointer which capped a 5-for-6 ND shooting stretch.
The first-half difference-maker was a 5.5-minute stretch in which the Irish didn’t score due to five turnovers. Houston went on to build a 15-21 lead. With around five minutes left until the break, Shrewsberry and Allocco each drained a triple to keep it close at 21-27.
Tae Davis continued to go to work down low finishing the half with 15 points on 6-of-9 shooting. The Cougars countered by ending the half making eight of their last 11.
Now let’s fast forward a little bit into the second half. Back-to-back buckets from Shrewsberry, including a corner triple at 14:43, gave the Irish some momentum; a possession later, Logan Imes had a great pass down low to Davis who put it away for the score to cap an Irish 7-0 run. Houston Head Coach Kelvin Sampson then called a timeout with the Irish within one at 44-45.
Unfortunately, the timeout worked in Houston’s favor and the Cougars punched back with five straight points.
The next stretch was a down-in-the-mud defensive grind. Houston’s aforementioned bucket which gave them a 50-45 lead was their only made shot in their last 10 attempts. However, the Irish offense couldn’t capitalize for they went 0-for-8 during the same stretch.
The Irish scoring drought went nearly four minutes allowing Houston to build their lead back up to nine. Imes ended the drought at 5:35 when he drove the lane and converted the layup.
From here on, the two sides traded buckets until Houston’s Emanuel Sharp threw up a long prayer at 1:43 with the shot clock low and banked it in. Matt Allocco countered immediately with a three of his own but the clock was the enemy now. Thus, Houston settled in for the 65-54 victory.
UP NEXT
The Fighting Irish will get the Thanksgiving holiday off and then conclude Players Era play on Saturday, Nov. 30. Notre Dame will challenge No. 21/19 Creighton at 1 p.m. ET on truTV.
– ND –