LOUISVILLE – Make it three wins in a row for the Notre Dame men’s basketball team. The Fighting Irish (10-16, 5-10) reached double-digit wins on the season by storming into the KFC Yum! Center on Wednesday night and leaving with a 72-50 victory over the Louisville Cardinals (8-19, 3-13). The Irish outscored the Cardinals 41-25 in the second half, shooting 15-of-32 (.469).
Braeden Shrewsberry continued to excel on the road. He entered tonight averaging 11.6 ppg in true road contests and finished with a team-best 23 points. Shrewsberry tied the Notre Dame freshman single-game record for made three-pointers with seven tonight (7-for-11), tying Pat Connaughton, Chris Thomas and Ryan Hoover.
Markus Burton recorded his 19th straight game in double figures and 24th overall on the year with 16 points. The freshman also tallied five rebounds, three assists and three steals. Burton passed Jerian Grant (418 points) tonight on the ND all-time freshman scoring list, moving up to the No. 6 spot.
Burton also scored double-digit points in the second half alone for the 10th time this season with 10 against the Cards. In addition, Shrewsberry poured in 14 points in the second half.
For the third consecutive game, Notre Dame finished with single-digit turnovers, coughing it up just seven times tonight. The Irish scored 30 points in the paint while draining 12-of-27 (.444) from deep. They also won the boards battle 42-37.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Shrewsberry hit two treys in the first three minutes and spurred a 4-for-6 Notre Dame start from the field, resulting in an early 12-6 lead. Next, the Cardinals battled back with a 6-0 run to tie the game at 12-all.
That’s when the game turned in Notre Dame’s favor. The Irish fired off a 15-2 scoring spree in which they made 6-of-8 from the field. The last three field goals during this stretch were three-pointers from Konieczny, Booth, and Shrewsberry. The 13-point advantage at 27-14 with 7:27 remaining would mark Notre Dame’s largest lead of the half.
With the half reaching a tipping point, Louisville rallied to get back in it, producing an 8-0 run. It was Matt Zona who ended a five-minute Irish scoring drought with a good move down low to make it 29-22 with 2:09 left.
Burton would get the last basket of the half with a great drive to the rim in a heavily crowded space, giving the Irish a 31-25 halftime lead.
Louisville ended with a slightly better shooting percentage in the half (38.5 percent to our 36.4 percent), but ND was 5-for-12 from beyond the arc. Notre Dame also won the rebounding battle 21-18. The Irish had six assists on 12 made field goals and only coughed up four turnovers compared to the Cardinals’ six. Shrewsberry led at the midway point with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting from three-point range.
Speaking of Shrewsberry, he scored Notre Dame’s first five points of the half, which included his fourth three of the game. Defensively, the Irish forced three turnovers in a 97-second span and it all equated to a 36-28 lead at the 16:39 media timeout.
It was a total team effort over the next five minutes of the game. Booth, Imes, Konieczny, Davis and Burton all contributed to the team’s next 15 points (6-for-8 FG stretch) to keep the Irish out front at 53-39 with 10:30 on the clock.
A 6-0 Cardinals run would creep the home team back to single digits, cutting the Irish lead to 53-45. Yet, out of the media timeout, Shrewsberry said not today with two three-pointers on back-to-back possessions.
That ultimately ignited a 16-2 scoring stretch to put the game on ice. During the stretch, Burton exerted his will on the game with five straight points, then Booth joined in with a jumper, followed by the seventh and final Shrews three.
The last three of the game belonged to walk-on Thomas Crowe, which brought the game to its final score of 72-50.
UP NEXT
The Irish remain on the road and take their three-game win streak to Syracuse on Saturday, Feb. 24. That matchup inside the JMA Wireless Dome will tip off at Noon ET on ESPN.
— ND –