WASHINGTON D.C. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team passed its first road test of the 2024-25 season and enacted some revenge from a year ago in the process. The Fighting Irish (3-0) invaded Capital One Arena on Saturday afternoon and took down the Georgetown Hoyas (2-1), 84-63. The Irish scored 80+ points for the third consecutive game, already tying last year’s mark in that department.
Guard Matt Allocco picked up the Irish when they needed him the most in the first half. The grad transfer went 5-for-6 from the field, 4-for-5 from three, to earn 15 first-half points. Thanks to Allocco shining bright in enemy territory, the Irish took a 44-29 halftime lead. Allocco ultimately finished the game with 17 points, a team-high seven assists and five rebounds.
Markus Burton picked up the torch in the second half where he scored 12 of his 16 points. Burton was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line and dished out five assists.
What was also great about today’s victory was that so many players stepped up at different moments. Braeden Shrewsberry had a solid second half and finished with nine points. Tae Davis continued his strong start to the season with 13 points and eight rebounds.
Then there’s Kebba Njie with eight points and five boards. Nikita Konstantynovskyi came off the bench and tied Davis for the team-high in rebounds with eight, plus supplied eight points. Burke Chebuhar came off the bench and went 3-for-3 from deep for nine points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Georgetown made two of its first three from the field then the Notre Dame defense frustrated the Hoyas as they went zero for their next 14. Meanwhile, Matt Allocco and Tae Davis took advantage on the offensive end. Allocco drained back-to-back treys, followed immediately by seven straight points from Davis, giving the Irish a 19-7 lead at the 12:11 mark.
Over the next four minutes, Notre Dame was plagued by the turnover bug, five to be exact. That allowed Georgetown to cut the Irish lead to 23-19.
Allocco stepped up again draining two more threes to start the game 4-for-4 from beyond the arc. This pushed the Notre Dame lead to double digits at 32-22.
Soon after, Burke Chebuhar subbed in and played five valuable minutes, draining back-to-back threes to give the Irish a 42-25 advantage. Notre Dame ultimately stormed into halftime with a 44-29 lead.
Allocco was 5-for-6 from the field and 4-for-5 from deep in the first half. Davis was the next highest scorer at nine points despite sitting on the bench with two fouls. Notre Dame shot 65.4 percent from the field and 7-of-12 (.583) from deep compared to Georgetown’s 26.3 percent and 3-of-18 from three (.167).
Fast forward to 10:25 remaining and the Irish just completed a 6-0 run to give themselves a 62-43 lead. Burton had eight of the team’s 18 second-half points at this juncture of the contest.
Shrewsberry then picked up the torch with five straight points, followed by a basket from Davis and next thing you know the Irish were cruising up 69-45 with 7:54 left on the clock.
The Notre Dame offensive flurry capped on a 7-for-7 field goal stretch, getting scoring from Shrewsberry, Davis, Njie, Burton and Allocco. It all resulted in a 79-54 advantage with 4:27 remaining and that was all she wrote. Notre Dame closed it out for the 84-63 road victory to improve to 3-0 on the season.
UP NEXT
Back at Purcell the Irish go for a double dip of games. The first will be North Dakota on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. ET. The second will be a Friday night special with Elon at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 22. To purchase tickets ahead of time, please visit FightingIrish.com.
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