CHARLOTTE – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (15-17) has a flair for the dramatics and they once again did just enough to punch their ticket into the second round of the ACC Tournament. With the game tied at 54-all against the Pitt Panthers (17-15) with under 15 seconds left, the Irish had the ball with a chance at the win. Markus Burton put up a shot and then Tae Davis was fouled on the rebound. Davis then went to the line with one second left and secured the 55-54 victory. It marked the fourth straight Irish game decided by one possession.
Tae Davis led the offense with 11 points, stepping up to the line and hitting free throws when the Irish needed it most as he went 5-6 from the charity stripe. Markus Burton finished with 10 points, five rebounds, and a team-best three assists.
Nikita Konstantynovskyi finished just one rebound shy of a double-double as he tallied 10 points and nine boards in the win, going a perfect 4-4 from the floor and 2-2 from the line. The 10 points were a season high.
Matt Allocco registered nine points and five rebounds while Julian Roper II supplied eight points, two steals and one block.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Notre Dame got off to an 11-5 start after four points from Nikita Konstantynovskyi, buckets from Julian Roper II and Markus Burton, then a Matt Allocco three. Later J.R. Konieczny found Sir Mohammed for an easy layup and Allocco drained another three and the Irish were firing on all cylinders up 16-7 at 11:50. At this point Notre Dame was 6-12 with four assists.
Out of a Pitt timeout, Notre Dame capped a 4-5 shooting stretch from the field to go up double digits, 20-10, at 9:49.
Other first half highlights include a Roper II block that fed into an Allocco drive and dish to the corner for a Cole Certa three. Soon after, a Burton dish to Roper II for another easy layup kept the Irish ahead at 25-20.
However, the Irish ended the half on a 4.5-minute scoring drought, recording five turnovers in that stretch to bring their half total to 10. Yet, Notre Dame held onto a slim lead still at 25-22.
Back-to-back takes from Davis kickstarted the second half to keep the Irish up 29-24. However, Coach Shrewsberry soon had to call a timeout to rally the effort out of his team as Pitt closed the gap. The Panthers then grabbed their first lead of the game at 14:06, now 31-32.
Burton scored eight of the team’s next 12 to keep trading blows with Pitt, as the Irish tied it 43-43 with 6:54 remaining.
Later down 43-47, Matt Allocco drained a big three to pull ND within one, then down on the defensive end, Burton stripped the ball and drove to the basket where Roper II followed for the tip-in slam. As a result, Notre Dame recaptured the lead 48-47.
It was back and forth between the two squads as a Pitt layup put them in front 49-48, but a pair of Davis free throws gave Irish a one-point advantage yet again.
The Panthers knocked down a pair of free throws of their own before Davis responded with another pair from behind the charity stripe to make it 52-51 with 1:21 remaining.
Pitt recaptured the lead 54-52 after knocking one down from behind the arc, but Konstantynovskyi came in clutch with a tip-in layup to tie it up at 54-all.
After a Pitt turnover with 20 seconds remaining, Burton looked to attack the rim as Davis grabbed the rebound and was fouled on the putback with one-second remaining.
Just when you thought it may be going into overtime yet again, Davis had the opportunity to put the Irish in front at the free throw line. Knocking down the first shot put Notre Dame in front 55-54 as the clock expired and the Irish claimed their first ACC tournament win of the postseason.
UP NEXT
The Irish are back in action at the Spectrum Center tomorrow afternoon as they take on North Carolina at 2:30 p.m. on ESPN.
– ND –