Notre Dame 76, Pittsburgh 72: A Certa-fied clutch effort

Seemingly rejuvenated, the Irish finally found a way to grab a lead down the stretch and hold onto it in crunch time

Following two lackluster defeats against the Louisville Cardinals and the SMU Mustangs, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish were tasked with finding their footing Saturday afternoon with the Pittsburgh Panthers in town. Braeden Shrewsberry and Matt Allocco were ruled out before the game, which were big blows to an offense that is often starved for spacing. However, their absence enabled Notre Dame to upgrade their defensive lineup, which proved very valuable as the Irish turned in an out-of-nowhere inspired effort in grinding out a win in what was a thoroughly entertaining game.

The Irish got off to a great start by forcing Pitt into a bad shot and Kebba Njie hitting Tae Davis cleanly on a cut to the hoop for a quick bucket. J.R. Konieczny, getting the start, deflected a Panther pass for a steal on the following possession, so the Irish seemed engaged defensively to begin the game. Unfortunately, three different Irish players (Njie (twice), Markus Burton, Sir Mohammed) turned the ball over four times on their next five possessions, so Notre Dame wasn’t able to build a lead off of their early defensive toughness. Turnovers: 4, Field Goals: 2

A couple good possessions by Burton (hitting Njie on a screen/roll for a dunk, draining a pull-up fadeaway) brought the Irish up to four baskets with four turnovers. A travel by Tae Davis and a giveaway by Nikita Konstantynovksyi, however, would give the turnovers back the lead. Pittsburgh scored off of both of those mistakes to give the Panthers a five point lead. The Irish bounced back a bit when Konstantynovksyi made a tough bucket in traffic under the hoop and Cole Certa drew an offensive foul. However, Burton threw the ball away on the next possession. Turnovers: 7, Field Goals: 5.

Tae Davis (Tae Davis!) made a miracle deep three off the glass as the shot clock expired, and Burton would make a step-back triple on the following possession to give the Irish offense some extra life. However, Notre Dame’s defense was sputtering, allowing baskets on four of five Pittsburgh trips down the floor, often letting the Panthers catch the ball close to the hoop in strong position. Garrett Sundra was a particular culprit here, as Pittsburgh found a way to attack him multiple times. We’ll turn off the Turnovers vs. Field Goals scoreboard at this juncture, because the Irish cleaned up their act and didn’t register another giveaway for the next eight minutes.

The Irish survived a stretch with Burton on the bench, which was huge given that their other two starting guards weren’t available. Burton got back in and promptly hit Njie again on a screen-and-roll, and Njie uncharacteristically made a tough left-handed lay-in through the help defense. Tae Davis very characteristically got to the hoop in traffic for another bucket, and Sir Mohammed rebounded an airballed Burton three for a reverse lay-up. Suddenly, Notre Dame found itself with a 26-23 advantage.

Pitt would rip off a mini 7-2 run to take a two-point lead, but the Irish were still playing respectable possessions on both ends. In the last minute, Notre Dame forced a shot-clock violation on a late strip by Davis, and Burton would hero-ball his way into a tough running jumper that bounced around the rim and in for the last shot of the half. We went to the locker room knotted up at 30, after one of the better defensive halves of basketball the Irish have played in quite some time.

The Irish opened up the second half with another nice interior pass from Mohammed to Njie, who made another contested bucket at the rim (seriously what is going on here). Davis would get a put-back on an offensive rebound, and Burton would recover after getting juked to block a Pitt jumper. He’d turn it over on the next possession, but Konieczny hustled back and averted the fast break. Then Micah Shrewsberry called a nice under-the-hoop inbounds play where Konieczny leaked free to the hoop for a dunk after setting a high screen for Burton. The Irish effort was palpable — a breath of fresh air.

Jaland Lowe would successfully drive to the basket a couple times for Pitt, which tied the score at 36, but Tae Davis would answer, first by getting fouled going to the hoop, and second by dumping the ball to Njie for a dunk when he got double-teamed in the post. He’d come up big again on the other end when Cameron Corhen was about to successfully bully Sundra for a layup. Davis flew in from out of nowhere to swat the ball, wedging it between the rim and backboard.

Pitt would get a three from Zack Austin on what was strangely his first shot attempt of the game, and Ishmael Leggett hit a stop-and-pop in the lane, but Notre Dame had an answer from an unlikely source. First, Cole Certa got fouled going to the hoop and made a free throw. He then hit a wide open deep three on the next trip down, and then finally, Certa got loose in the corner, pump faked his man, and hit a tough three without much space in front of the Irish bench, which went crazy. Then, several plays later, Certa caught the ball DEEP behind the three point line and hit a heat-check three with Leggett’s hand in his face. He had eight total points the rest of the conference season (mostly in garbage time), but managed to drop ten in under three minutes in a hotly contested game.

Lowe would score on an and-one for Pitt on one of the weaker defensive efforts by the Irish all day, and the foul on Julian Roper put Pitt in the bonus, while the Irish had drawn only two fouls. Certa finally missed from deep (on a decent look), and Leggett scored on the resulting fast break to put Pitt back ahead 51-50. However, the Panthers were still afraid of Certa’s shot, and he used a shot fake to get down the lane and fouled. He’d make both free throws to get the Irish the lead back, giving him 12 consecutive points for Notre Dame.

Certa came out of the game after that for Logan Imes, and his presence was missed when Imes got open off of a Burton drive and missed the layup. However, the Irish offense got back on track when Konieczny and Davis banked in shots on back-to-back possessions on drives, and Burton hit a top-of-the-key three after four Notre Dame defenders ganged up on Lowe for a turnover. Pitt called timeout, and the Irish led 59-54 with 6:25 to play, tying the biggest lead of the game for either team.

Leggett got free for an easy floater coming out of the timeout, but Burton answered after a terrible offensive possession where he dribbled out the shot clock but made a tough off-balance shot in the lane as time expired. The next trip down, Micah Shrewsberry directed traffic and called Certa over from the far end of the court to set a ball screen for Burton. Shrewsberry got the switch he wanted from the screen, and Burton ate Lowe’s lunch for a layup. After more good Irish defense, Davis waltzed down the lane for an easy lay-up to put the Irish up nine.

A Lowe three would rim out on the next possession, and Konieczny would snatch the ball away from seven-footer Guillermo Diaz Graham and save it to Njie for a nice momentum-preserving play. Burton juked Leggett out of his shoes a couple plays later for a post bucket to get the Irish lead to double-digits. However, Leggett responded with a three to give Pitt a little late life and an eight-point deficit. The Irish would bleed the clock down from 2:26 to 1:40 on their next possession, which unfortunately involved a Davis missed layup and a Njie fumble. Njie would commit an extremely silly (and soft) frustration foul right after the turnover, which led to Lowe shooting the double-bonus. The lead was down 67-61 with 1:36 to play.

Shrewsberry subbed in Sir Mohammed into the game at this juncture for Njie, and it paid off getting him off the floor, because Tae Davis was able to drive the lane without anyone clogging it and got fouled, making one of two free throws. Konieczny did a nice job contesting a Lowe miss from three, but Sir Mohammed got sped up on the next possession and turned the ball over throwing a bailout bounce pass to Davis, who didn’t see it coming. A tip-in by Diaz Graham after Leggett missed two free throws got the deficit back down to five with 46 seconds remaining.

Pitt had a couple fouls to give and started taking them after the Irish did a nice job of breaking the press. It was Konieczny to go to the line when Notre Dame finally got to the bonus and he made them both. Leggett responded with a miracle three in Davis’ face that rimmed in somehow, leaving 29 seconds for the Irish to drain with a four-point lead. Shrewsberry had to call timeout a second time in the last minute with the Irish having trouble inbounding the ball, and strangely didn’t attempt to scheme Burton open, instead making Konieczny the first option. The gambit to use the guy who had just seen two free throws go in paid off, as Konieczny knocked them both down again.

That STILL didn’t ice the game, as Leggett made a much more clean look from three the next trip down with 23 seconds left. Burton finally was able to catch an inbounds pass, made two free throws, and Konieczny did a great job contesting Leggett’s third straight three point attempt, which airballed. Corhen got fouled on the rebound, made the first free throw, missed the second, and Pitt got the rebound again. After Lowe missed a tough corner three, Brandin Cummings grabbed the weak-side rebound and put it back in. Two point game, 8.7 seconds to play.

Micah Shrewsberry used his final timeout to draw up the inbounds play. This time, it was Burton lined up to throw in the ball, but Shrewsberry used a trick play, opting to have Burton toss the ball to Davis out of bounds, with the intent for Davis to then get it inbounds to Burton. The play was brilliant and worked, except Burton fumbled the pass and got tied up. Fortunately, the possession arrow favored Notre Dame, and they got another chance with 6.4 to go. Koniezcny managed to corral the inbound pass in the corner, got fouled, and calmly knocked down both free throws to secure the four point lead and the win.

Bullet Points

• Burton (2-for-2) and especially Konieczny (6-for-6) should take a bow for their clutch free throw shooting in the game’s last minute. That’s ultimately how the Irish managed to finally close out a tight game.
• Konieczny played extremely well despite not flooding the box score prior to the final minute. His defense was excellent, and he made plenty of “glue guy” hustle plays.
• This was one of Tae Davis’ best games. He scored 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, and he brought his A-game on defense.
• After an extremely sloppy start, the Irish only turned the ball over four times in the final 31 minutes.
• After getting three of each, the Markus Burton tracker is now at 44 turnovers and 34 assists in conference play. So he improved his ratio today! Kinda!
• Logan Imes played a lot of key minutes in this game at the expense of Mohammed, despite not registering a field goal, assist, steal, or rebound. I thought this might be only for defense, but considering Mohammed and Roper were the guard alternatives on the bench (Certa had checked in for Njie in the last minute), I genuinely think Shrewsberry trusted Imes more to make a free throw.
• As important as I think Garrett Sundra is for the Irish offense, he continues to get beat in the post defensively, which is probably the only thing holding him back from a bigger role.