Irish Fall to Rutgers 85 to 84 in Wild OT Finish

The team fought valiantly without their best player for most of the game, but ultimately didn’t have enough firepower to hang with Dylan Harper and the Scarlet Knights

Jeffrey (Tyge) O’Donnell-Imagn Images

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s basketball team opened up their Players Era Festival play late Tuesday night (and early Wednesday morning), losing 85 to 84 to the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in a hard-fought game that went to overtime.

Star point guard Markus Burton was lost early in the game to what looked like a very serious injury to his right knee. The sophomore had just converted on a tough bucket in the lane and had fallen to the floor from some contact during the shot. While on the floor, Rutgers’ Emmanuel Ogbole, a 6’10”, 270-lb center, fell on top of Burton’s knee, causing him to grimace in pain and attempt to limp off the court. Burton was immediately rushed to the locker room and after some time he returned to watch the rest of the game with his foot elevated, as it was reported he was done for the night. As of publication, it’s unclear exactly what he injured, but it’s safe to say it appears to be serious.

The remaining Irish team fought valiantly without their leading scorer, holding a lead for much of the game. The Scarlet Knights’ Dylan Harper was fantastic and the main reason Rutgers pulled it out, as the blue-chip frosh guard and son of Ron Harper finished with 36 points on 12-of-22 shooting and also added 6 assists and 6 rebounds. Fellow 5-star freshman Ace Bailey (10 points, 4 rebounds), Jordan Derkack (16 points, 6 rebounds), and Jeremiah Williams (10 points, 6 rebounds) were heavily involved in the win for Rutgers as well. Rutgers shot 45% from the field and 33% from long range, and won the turnover battle 9 to 14.

The Irish played pretty darn well considering their loss of Burton, shooting 44% from the field and 42% (14-for-33) from long range on the evening/morning. Matt Allocco (24 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists) was the star for the Irish on the evening, playing a great game throughout and nearly serving as a Jerian Grant vs. Louisville-esque hero in the waning moments of overtime. Braeden Shrewsberry added 16 points (but shot poorly, going 6/20 from the field), while others stepped up and made some key plays throughout the second half and overtime, including Tae Davis (15 points, 6 rebounds), Burke Chebuhar (11 points, 7 rebounds), and Logan Imes (8 points).

Notre Dame did a great job getting things going in the first half, as they made a run early to jump out to a 25-15 lead. However, a Rutgers run that soon followed ate away nearly all of that deficit for Steve Pikiell’s team, and led the Irish to a 1-point halftime advantage.

In the second half, the Irish continued to maintain a small lead over the Scarlet Knights, but failed to extend it to a point where they felt comfortable, and with 8 minutes to go the two teams were actually all tied up at 56-56.

Back-to-back threes from Logan Imes and Burke Chebuhar put the Irish up 62-56, but the Scarlet Knights used a 9-0 run fueled by Harper’s heroics to go up 65-62 at the under-4 media timeout, with the ND offense sputtering for a stretch of several minutes.

Two Tae Davis free throws brought the Irish back within 1 point with 2 minutes to go, and after a stop on the other end, a Matt Allocco layup retook the lead for Notre Dame, putting them up 66-65 at the 1:19 mark. The good vibes were short-lived, though, as Bailey knocked down a tough pull-up jumper to snatch the lead right back for Rutgers.

Allocco’s attempted answer on a fallaway midrange jumper missed the mark, and the Scarlet Knights were able to add a couple free throws to go up by 3. On the other end, coming out of a timeout, the Irish looked to have nothing working offensively until Allocco took matters into his own hands, hitting a contested three off the dribble to tie it at 69 with 8 seconds remaining.

Harper’s three-point attempt missed badly just before the buzzer, leading to overtime for the second straight game at the Players Era Festival (Alabama topped Houston in OT in the game right before this one).

The extra period saw the first 71 seconds pass without either team scoring, with Kebba Njie finally breaking that standoff with a pair of free throws to make it 71-69. After the two teams traded baskets, Rutgers used a corner three, a steal, and a transition bucket to gain a 77-73 advantage and then eventually go up 81-75, seemingly putting the game away.

However, no one told Allocco it was over, as the Princeton grad transfer proceeded to knock down three straight three pointers during the final 30 seconds to tie the game at 84.

Unfortunately, true freshman Cole Certa — who’d been subbed in to provide shooting — fouled Rutgers on the ensuing inbound play, thinking the Irish were still down and needed to send Rutgers to the line. The Scarlet Knights hit one of two free throws with the gift of that mental mistake, setting up the Irish for one final chance at the win with an inbound play with 3.8 seconds left.

The Irish drew up a decent play to get Allocco a solid look from deep, but his shot was juuuuust off and Rutgers escaped with the 85-84 victory. Definitely a tough result after some truly fantastic basketball from Allocco, Davis, and others, but Irish fans can at least take some solace in knowing this team can still be competitive with some really talented opponents even without their star point guard. Here’s to hoping it wasn’t a season-ender for Markus, and no matter what the diagnosis, our thoughts are with him as he finds out what his injury is and starts the road to recovery!