SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish (9-3) defeated the Evansville Purple Aces (4-7) in dominant fashion, taking home their fourth straight win. The 82-58 victory over the in-state foe keeps Notre Dame undefeated inside of Purcell with a 7-0 record at home so far this season.
The Irish shot an impressive 56% from behind the arc as they shot 14-25 on the day, tying their season-best number of threes made in a game this season. A big piece of that was shooting a scorching 7-10 from three in the first half alone.
Speaking of impressive shooting from three, no one did it better tonight than Braeden Shrewsberry. The junior guard shot 8-10 from three and finished with 26 points, surpassing his career-high points (25) and threes made in a game (7). This is the most threes from a Notre Dame player since Matt Farrell tied the school record with 10 three’s in 2018.
Another career-high performance came from sophomore Sir Mohammed, who finished with a career-high 21 points on 8-12 shooting from the floor. Mohammed also chipped in two rebounds and three assists for the Irish.
Kebba Njie grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds, followed by Carson Towt and Logan Imes with 6 rebounds a piece, tying Imes’ career-high in rebounds.
Jalen Haralson recorded his 10th straight game in double-figures, posting a 10-point performance with three assists and two rebounds.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish came out red hot in the opening minutes, knocking down three of their first four shots with treys from Sundra and Shrewsberry along with a finish at the rim from Towt. While Notre Dame posted the 8-0 early lead in the first two minutes of play, Evansville punched right back with 8 straight points of their own to make it a tied ball game.
After swapping buckets, back-to-back Shrewsberry threes were followed by a Mohammed triple to put the Irish up 19-12 at the 11:51 timeout. Shrewsberry had 11 of the Irish’s 19 points in just the first eight minutes of play.
The 11-0 run was capped off by a tough finish at the rim from Mohammed to extend the lead 21-12. The Purple Aces continued to chip away at the deficit, cutting it to five at 26-21 with 6:42 remaining in the half.
When the Irish offense needed another spark, Shrewsberry found the bottom of the net on his fourth three-pointer of the day. Koehler followed with a pair of free throws to give Notre Dame the 10-point advantage for their largest lead of the game thus far.
The Shrewsberry hot hand continued, knocking down his fifth from behind the arc. Paired with a Koehler and-one, the Irish 6-0 run extended their lead to 37-23.
Two buckets from Mohammed were sandwiched between two Purple Aces threes to close out the half, as the Irish led 41-29 at halftime.
The Irish shot 50% in the first half, shooting 15-30 from the floor and were impressive 7-10 from deep. Shrewsberry was lights out in the first half, scoring 17 points (already just two shy of his season-high 19 points) on 5-6 shooting from three. He was followed by Mohammed, who put up 11 points in the half shooting 5-7 from the floor.
To start the half, who other than Shrewsberry to knock down another three right out of the gate to extend the Irish lead to 15.
The Purple Aces responded with a 8-2 run to close the gap to single-digits at 46-37. The Irish and Purple Aces continued to trade buckets until the 14:26 mark when the Evansville offense had some life and the Irish were stuck in a two-and-a-half minute scoring drought.
A 9-0 Evansville run brought them within three at 52-49, but the run was broken up by Shrewsberry’s seventh three of the day as it sparked a monstrous run over the final 12 minutes.
Over the next 8 minutes of play, the Irish would score 26 points with 18 of those points coming from behind the arc. Shrewsberry, Sundra, Mohammed, Imes, and Certa all got in on the scoring action from three over that stretch to give Notre Dame a 25-point lead at 78-53 with four minutes remaining.
In the final 2:18, the Purple Aces would score just five more points as Haralson closed it out with four straight points for Notre Dame’s final baskets of the win.
In the last 12 minutes of play, Notre Dame outscored Evansville 30-9 to secure the 82-58 victory.
UP NEXT
The Irish will close out their homestand with Purdue Fort Wayne on Sunday, Dec. 21, inside Purcell Pavilion. That contest will tip off at 2 p.m. ET on ACCNX.
– ND –