SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team is playing its best basketball in March. The Fighting Irish (12-17, 7-11) claimed its fifth victory in its last six games by taking down an NCAA Tournament-bound team in Clemson, via the score 69-62. The Irish trailed 31-34 at the half before outscoring the Tigers (20-9, 10-8) 38-28 in the second half where they shot 46.2 percent.
Markus Burton continues to work on that ACC Rookie of the Year resume with 21 points tonight on 8-of-16 shooting. Burton tied his season high of six rebounds, plus four assists and one steal. Burton has now scored 80 points over the last three games. Furthermore, he notched his 8th game with 20+ points.
Another star of the match was Tae Davis, who scored all 18 of his points in the second half, including 12 in the final 7:30. Davis was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line.
Carey Booth rounded out the Irish in double figures with 11 points. He knocked down three treys, which brings his threes total for the week to six.
HOW IT HAPPENED
It was an absolute duel between Markus Burton and Clemson’s PJ Hall in the first half as they tallied 17 and 16 points, respectively.
At 10:33 the game was tied at 17-all as only two Irish had scored at that point with Burton at 11 points and Booth at six with two treys. Then the Tigers produced a 7-0 run to garner their largest lead of the half up 17-24.
Next, the Irish fired off a 12-2 run to claim a 29-26 lead and here’s how: Burton had two buckets, Shrewsberry with a pull-up jumper, then threes from Konieczny and Zona. The Irish converted 5-of-6 from the field during this stretch.
Fast forward to 2:03 remaining in the half and Burton hit the spin button and converted a #SCTop10 play to keep the Irish up front at 31-30. Yet, the Tigers would surge down the final stretch to claim a 31-34 lead at the break.
At halftime, Burton had 17 points on 7-of-13 shooting with the next highest Irish scorer being Booth at six points. PJ Hall had his 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting with the next highest being Chauncey Wiggins with eight points.
The second half was a heavyweight boxing match with each side having response after response. It started with Shrewsberry and Booth each draining one from beyond the arc early to reclaim the lead at 37-36. Then three ND turnovers over a two-minute span allowed the Tigers to push back out front at 37-41.
Fast forward to 10:57 on the clock and Konieczny earned a big steal and converted the breakaway layup to give the Irish a 45-44 lead. Then it was Zona’s turn for a big moment, converting a corner three for the 50-48 lead with 8:25 left.
Next, it was Davis’ time to shine as he threw down a monstrous dunk. Then down on the defensive end, Davis collected a steal, was later fouled on the breakaway and converted both free throws. Next offensive possession, it was Davis again driving and being fouled – plus two more free throws – thus a 6-0 Davis run to go up 56-50.
Fast forward to 4:40 on the clock and Burton drained a momentous three (his first bucket of the second half), sending the Irish into the final media timeout up 59-51.
On the other side of the timeout Clemson converted on back-to-back possessions to cut the ND lead in half. Davis answered the call once more with another incredible drive to the basket to keep the Tigers at bay.
When Clemson converted again to pull within four, Shrewsberry drained the biggest three of the game with 1:29 remaining to push the Irish lead to 64-57.
The Irish and Tigers exchanged free throws to make it a 66-60 ballgame. In a must foul situation, Clemson fouled Davis and Burton who sank 3 of the 4 and put the Irish up 69-60.
The Tigers had one last drive to the bucket, but Notre Dame would go to secure the 69-62 win.
UP NEXT
The Irish hit the road for the final two games of the regular season, starting with North Carolina on Tuesday, March 5. That match will tip at 7 p.m. ET on the ACC Network. The Irish then make the trek to Blacksburg for a showdown with Virginia Tech on Saturday, March 9, at 2:30 p.m. on ESPNU.
— ND –