CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (13-18, 4-14) succumbed to a 69-77 defeat to Boston College (11-20, 4-14) in the regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon. With the loss, Notre Dame will not qualify for the 2026 ACC Tournament in Charlotte, and today’s game concludes their 2025-26 season.
The Irish built a nine-point lead early in the second half, but a BC 15-3 run, which started with 8:44 remaining, was the difference maker. The Eagles seized a lead as large as nine with 2:59 left, in which ND cut it to four but never closer.
The Eagles were able to get to the free throw line 41 times on the day, knocking down 31 from the charity stripe as they went 19-26 in the second half alone.
Jalen Haralson finished with a team-high 21 points on 7-11 shooting from the floor and 7-11 from the stripe. The freshman finished the season strong, producing five 20-point games over his last eight played.
Cole Certa finished on a career-best nine straight games in double figures, totaling 10 this afternoon.
Braeden Shrewsberry earned 14 points behind four made triples. That moved his career three-pointers made total to 238, which moved the junior into the program’s all-time top-10 list, surpassing Prentiss Hubb.
Lastly, Brady Koehler secured a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double, his second of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half featured four ties and nine lead changes in a back-and-forth affair.
By the 11:40 media timeout, both sides had put up 12 shots, but the Eagles edged the Irish in makes 6 to 4, resulting in the home team up 13-10. Out of the timeout, Notre Dame got three-pointers from Braeden Shrewsberry and Sir Mohammed to keep pace and take a 16-15 lead.
Later, down 16-19, the Irish defense tightened its reins, as the offense produced a 14-2 scoring run from 8:21-3:45 to go up 28-21. Five different Notre Dame players contributed offensively to the run.
The Eagles ultimately missed their last 13 shots from the field; however, they kept it close due to the high Notre Dame foul count. The Eagles converted nine free throws over the final 2.5 minutes to cut Notre Dame’s lead to 33-30 at the half. The Irish only had three Haralson free throws over the final three minutes.
Notre Dame shot 10-28 (35.7%) from the field, 6-16 from three & 7-10 from the stripe, compared to Boston College’s 8-29 (27.6%) from the floor, 2-16 from beyond the arc and 12-15 from the free-throw line.
Haralson and Certa combined for an early 7-0 run to garner a nine-point advantage, but then Boston College immediately countered with a 9-0 scoring flurry over 1:18, taking advantage of a pair of ND turnovers to tie the game at 41-all.
Brady Koehler then broke the drought with a three at 14:35, then notched a huge block down on the defensive end on the very next play. Shrewsberry then made the most of it with two points on the offensive end for the five-point lead.
Next, Boston College recorded a 15-3 scoring run over nearly a 6-minute stretch to go up nine at 56-65.
A Shrewsberry triple would break up the Eagle run, but Boston College responded immediately with another four straight points to post a 65-56 advantage with 2:59 remaining.
An Imes three and a Haralson and-one helped cut the deficit to just five at 1:31, but the closing minutes would consist of the Irish looking to close the gap and being forced to send the Eagles to the free-throw line.
Haralson’s scoring kept the Irish alive as he would score nine of Notre Dame’s final 10 points. Ultimately, with Boston College knocking down 10 free throws in the final 1:31, the Eagles would go on to secure the win in the final regular season game as the Irish fell 69-77.
– ND –