LOUISVILLE – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (11-12, 2-8) showed some grit on the road against a top-25 team, but a late scoring surge from the #24/23 Louisville Cardinals (16-6, 6-4) was the difference maker in a 65-76 defeat. The Fighting Irish started hot with an early nine-point lead and trailed by six at the half. Notre Dame fought to pull within four at 9:29, but that’s when the Cardinals produced a 16-1 scoring run.
Cole Certa led the Irish with 18 points, draining five triples on the night. Brady Koehler also secured double-digit points with 11 on 4-10 shooting. The freshman also netted four steals and two blocks.
Freshman Jalen Haralson finished with eight points and a team-high five assists, while Carson Towt recorded six points and a team-best 10 rebounds.
As a team, Notre Dame shot 24-62 compared to Louisville’s 28-65. The Cardinals used their size to their advantage, outrebounding the Irish 46-35, and scoring 40 points in the paint.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Notre Dame built an eight-point lead by the first media timeout (14:56) thanks to a 4-6 shooting start. Four different Irish contributed early with Certa, Haralson, Shrewsberry and Sundra supplying the offense.
Louisville started 1-9 from the floor but took advantage of a foul on a made three to produce a five-point swing.
Certa and Shrewsberry halted the Cards’ momentum with back-to-back threes, restoring the lead to nine. Louisville immediately countered by working the ball inside and taking advantage of a pair of ND turnovers to record a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to take their first lead at 19-18.
Immediately after checking in, Ryder Frost knocked down the corner three to put the Irish back in front with 8:29 left in the half.
The Irish and Cardinals exchanged leads until the five-minute mark, when Louisville began to pull away with a 14-3 run to go up by ten with a minute left in the half.
Notre Dame closed out the half with layups from Haralson and Certa to bring the Irish within six at 32-38.
Each team shot 40 percent from the floor with the Irish shooting 13-32 and the Cardinals shooting 14-35. The Irish shot 38.5 percent from behind the arc, knocking down 5-13, while holding Louisville to 23.5 percent on 4-17 shooting from three.
While the Cardinals led by as much as 8, the Irish continued to chip away. Back-to-back triples from Certa made it a five-point game at 12:43. Three minutes later, the Irish had it to as few as four with a Mohammed jumper and Koehler layup making it 53-57.
Still a five-point game at 8:13, the Cardinals would go on a 14-0 run to make it 54-73 heading into the final 3:30 of play.
The Irish would respond with an 11-3 run of their own to close it out, but would fall 65-76 in Louisville.
UP NEXT
Notre Dame returns to Purcell Pavilion this weekend, where they will bust out the green jerseys against Florida State. It’s ‘Irish Wear Green, on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 4 p.m. ET, with the game airing live on the CW.
– ND –