Notre Dame squanders an incredible early blitz
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were looking to build some momentum today against a beatable Syracuse Orange squad. For much of the first half, it looked like they’d cruise to a nice road win. However, things unraveled quickly after the Irish built up a nice lead in the game’s first 15 minutes, and there’s nothing to take away from this one but head-hanging and frustration. This hurt, and there’s no two ways about it.
The Irish appeared to put the hammer down very early in this one. Everything was flowing offensively and just felt like it came easy. The game opened with an 11-0 run, including what must have been a cathartic three-pointer for Braeden Shrewsberry after the goose egg he laid on Monday. But it was Markus Burton who was putting his stamp on the game. He was scoring at all three levels, including a couple contested three pointers. The Orange were consistently late to rotate to him as he came around screens, and they paid for it virtually every time. As a result, Burton was able to rack up 20 points by the under-8 timeout.
While Syracuse’s defense consisted of a flashing neon “THIS WAY TO BASKET” sign, the re-invigorated Irish defense was doing its job. Syracuse helped by getting off to a cold start from the field, but nothing was coming easy for them, and quality back-side Irish rotations kept allowing Notre Dame to blitz on screens. Julian Roper and Sir Mohammed in particular made some great plays in the passing lanes to make life difficult on the Orange.
Syracuse pulled ahead of Burton in points for the first time with under four minutes to go in the half (seriously) on a couple free throws from Eddie Lampkin Jr. and that kicked off a run from Syracuse. Micah Shrewsberry shifted his team to zone in this stretch and there didn’t seem to be a great reason for it. Some questionable Irish recoveries in transition and on offensive rebounds led to three-pointers for the Orange, including a four-point play when Shrewsbery fouled Elijah Moore. Meanwhile Notre Dame missed their last eight shots of the half, including a point-blank lay-up by Shrewsberry which let Syracuse sneak the lead back to single digits at 42-33 at the half.
Unfortunately, the bad stretch at the end of the first half proved to be the beginning of the end for the Irish. More cold shooting from Notre Dame opened the second half as they ran the consecutive field goal misses up to 12, though the shots they were taking were no longer good. Turnovers started to pile up with errant passes, and a J.J. Starling three-pointer got the Irish lead down to 2. Tae Davis would finally end the nightmarish stretch of offense by bending around big man Lampkin for a layup.
Notre Dame would continue to lean on Davis’ ability to draw fouls in the next stretch, as he was getting into the swing of things after a quiet first half. The Irish would get their cushion back up to six by the under-12 timeout on the strength of free throws, but field goals continued to be hard to come by, as they made only two of them in the first eight minutes. The flow and ease of the first half was gone, and the game devolved into a slog in which Davis was just whistle-hunting and Burton was forcing up tough shots after not getting a step on drives.
Syracuse was just as cold, and it took them quite some time to make any further headway against the Irish lead. Lampkin’s hook shot off a rebound with 7:30 remaining was the first Syracuse field goal in about five minutes. He’d get a dunk on the next possession, and that re-ignited the Syracuse offensive attack. Starling would get to the hoop for a layup the next time down to get the Irish lead down to three. A few possessions later, Burton fouled Starling on a three and he hit each free throw, tying the game at 63 with 5:06 remaining. After a traveling call against Tae Davis, Lampkin got a shot at taking Nikita Konstantynovskyi one-on-one, and though he missed the initial attempt, he made the follow-up, giving Syracuse their first lead of the day.
Meanwhile Kyle Cuffe Jr. continued to make life difficult for Markus Burton, in a complete contrast to the ease at which he scored earlier in the game. Burton was getting no space to operate, and the result was a bunch of disjoint offense for Notre Dame. Starling continued to take it to the Irish down the stretch, and a never-ending string of offensive rebounds by the Orange dwindled the clock down to almost nothing. Syracuse grabbed a defensive rebound with 2:37 left and a 4-point lead and didn’t relinquish the ball until Lampkin missed two free throws with 1:11 on the clock.
On the next possession, Matt Allocco of all people played bully-ball and was able to get a bucket in the post, and the Irish had some life when Starling took a very tough shot over Davis that missed. The Irish got the ball back with 19.5 seconds left on the clock. After two timeouts on the inbounds play, The Irish got the ball in to Markus Burton, but an offensive foul was called on Davis for an illegal screen, and Syracuse got the ball back.
Notre Dame fouled Starling, who made one free throw, and then Burton took the ensuing inbounds all the way to the hoop for an easy, almost conceded, lay-up. Cuffe would be the next man on the free throw line and he’d make both to take a three point lead. Unfortunately, Markus Burton missed a relatively open deep three to seal the game for the Orange.
As soon as the fate of the Irish was sealed, Micah Shrewsberry ran right over to referee Brian O’Connell and screamed in his face. Nothing was particularly offensive about the last play, and Shrewsberry must have been storing pent-up anger to avoid giving Syracuse free throws while the game was still in doubt. He drew a double-technical for an ejection to cap off what has to be one of the most frustrating losses the Irish have seen in years.
Bullet Points
- Despite early offensive struggles, all nine Syracuse players scored in the first half, while none of the four Irish bench players notched a bucket (13-0 in bench points).
- Syracuse was without one of their best players in freshman forward Donnie Freeman, who is still nursing a lower leg injury.
- The bad version of Kebba Njie reared its ugly head today. In addition to miserable turnovers, he would consistently get fed by driving guards and would be able to get absolutely nothing out of it, not even a shot attempt.
- Micah Shrewsberry got completely out-coached in this one. Once Cuffe changed the way Burton was being guarded in the second half, there was no counter-adjustment to get the offense humming again.
- Good lord.