Irish Upset No. 11 Florida State, 83-73

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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (10-14, 7-11) knocked off No. 11 Florida State (15-5, 11-4) on Saturday, rolling to an 83-73 victory inside Purcell Pavilion. It marked the Fighting Irish’s first ranked win since November of 2017. 

Junior guard Prentiss Hubb led the way with 22 points on 6-of-17 shooting, including a 7-of-8 mark from the free-throw line. It marked his fifth 20+ point performance on the season and second in the last three games. In addition, Hubb crossed over the 1,000-career point plateau, becoming the 65th player in program history to do so. 

A total of five Irish players finished in double figures including a near double-double from Dane Goodwin. The junior guard posted 15 points and nine boards. Cormac Ryan, Nate Laszewski and Nikola Djogo all poured in 11 points each. 

“Very proud of our group. I thought we had some edge about us – to get loose balls and get charges,” Notre Dame Head Coach Mike Brey stated. “We did a good job in practice the last couple of days about opening the floor up and cutting more. We’ve talked about finishing games. We got some key rebounds late that we haven’t gotten in other games.”

HOW IT HAPPENED

Notre Dame came firing out of the gate, jumping on Florida State to go up 13-5 lead. Fresh off the senior day ceremony, an energized Nikola Djogo recorded a stretch in which he scored eight of the team’s 10 points from 19:20-16:21. 

Cormac Ryan then got in on the fun, connecting on back-to-back treys to push the Irish to double-digits, up 19-5 at the 14:03 mark. Speaking of hot hands, Prentiss Hubb started the contest 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, as his third trey made it 27-13. 

Notre Dame was clicking defensively as well in the first half, holding Florida State to 39 percent shooting, including just 3-for-11 from three-point range. In fact, the Irish held the Seminoles to without a field goal for over a five-minute stretch.

The Irish built a lead as large as 20-points before reaching halftime with a 47-31 advantage on 48 percent shooting (14-of-29). Hubb was already in double-digits with 13 points. 

Florida State opened the second half on a 7-0 scoring run to cut the deficit to 47-38. Next, Hubb ended the drought and got the Irish on the board at the 16:33 mark with his 1,000th career point. 

A Djogo and-one at 14:28 stymied the Seminole rally, pushing the lead back to double-digits, up 54-43. Thirty seconds later, Florida State was assessed a technical foul and Notre Dame took advantage with four straight points off of it. 

The Seminoles threatened again with about three minutes remaining, cutting the deficit to four points at 74-70. Hubb then delivered in the clutch with a driving layup with 1:08 left. 

The Irish also clinched the game from the free-throw line, connecting on 16-of-20 in the second half. Notre Dame finished 28-of-34 from the stripe. 

NOTES

• Notre Dame now only trails 5-6 in the series against Florida State, with a 4-1 mark inside Purcell Pavilion.
• Hubb became the 65th ND player to reach 1,000 points in his career and the 24th under Coach Brey.  
• Djogo’s senior day was also his 100th game in an Irish uniform. Djogo finished with 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting. 
• Hubb came close to Jerian Grant’s ND record of 125 assists in league play from 2015. Hubb dished out five assists on Saturday to finish with 120. 
• Today marked Notre Dame’s first ranked win since a 68-68 victory over No. 6 Wichita State on Nov. 2, 2017. 

UP NEXT

The first round of the ACC Tournament in Greensboro begins on Tuesday, March 9.

— ND —