N.C. State 66, Notre Dame 65: Closing woes persist

The Irish let a winnable conference road game slip away

Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish went into Raleigh Wednesday evening looking for a much-needed win against N.C. State to even up their ACC record. Conference road wins are gold, and the Irish had a seven point lead with under four minutes to play, but offensive execution dwindled down the stretch, and N.C. State was able to turn the tables in the final minute to steal the victory.

Both offenses started off cold early. The Irish missed their first three shots — all threes — before Matt Allocco made a triple off of a kick-out from Kebba Njie. The Wolfpack weren’t able to get anything going in the half-court until turnovers by Braeden Shrewsberry and Markus Burton led to their first two buckets, and that seemed to give them the juice to finally hit a couple jumpers. A masterful drive by Burton and an under-the-hoop lay-in by Njie accounted for the rest of the Irish scoring in the first stanza. The under-16 timeout didn’t hit until 13:34 in the half with the Irish trailing 9-7.

Shrewsberry and Burton kept getting decent looks from three, but they couldn’t connect on any of them, as the pair combined to miss their first six. The Irish had to find their offense under the arc. Burton was able to get a pull-up on the baseline and Njie got a putback to answer the Wolfpack heating up a bit from beyond the arc. Tae Davis and Nikita Konstantinovskyi attempted the first four free throws of the game, but only made one between them (Davis). Ice cold offense, plus five turnovers, had the Irish trailing 18-14 with just under 8 to play in the half.

The Irish finally got another three to drop when play resumed as Burton drained a much-needed contested one. Shrewsberry got off his slide as well when he poured in a triple off a cross-court pass right in the eyes of Jayden Taylor. That gave Notre Dame a small lead, but Marcus Hill responded in kind for the Wolfpack on a deep contested three to grab it right back. A Tae Davis drive-and score, followed by a Dontrez Styles layup and Kebba Njie dunk (off of a great feed from Burton) led to five lead changes on five straight possessions. The see-saw was officially moving.

With Burton on the bench with two fouls, the Irish actually found a way to take control in the last four minutes of the half. Davis found a lane for a virtually uncontested drive-and-score, and Julian Roper beautifully intercepted a baseline pass on the other end. After a couple hustle plays to retain possession by Konstantinovskyi and Davis off of a rebound, Roper was rewarded with an easy layup when Davis hit him streaking down the lane from under the hoop. A Shrewsberry three boosted the lead up to eight, and Davis got a couple free throws to cap off an 11-0 run.

Thanks to the late offensive surge, the Irish went to the halftime locker room up 33-26. Notre Dame was dominating the game in the paint, while N.C. State couldn’t get much of anything going from inside the arc. The Wolfpack scored 15 of their 26 points on threes, and attempted far more shots outside the arc than inside it. The Notre Dame help defense was on point.

The Wolfpack put together a quick 4-0 run to open the second half that was negated by a wide open Allocco corner three and a layup off of a Burton drive. N.C. State couldn’t make any further headway until Taylor hit a deep three in Burton’s face to drop the lead down to four heading into the under-16 timeout.

Taylor would hit a couple more threes in the next stanza, and Kebba Njie deserves plenty of credit for helping to maintain the Irish lead (with a hat-tip to Wolfpack forward Ben Middlebrooks for missing a couple comically easy layups). In contrast to the North Carolina disappointment, Njie owned the glass and kept getting the Irish extra possessions via offensive rebounds and tipping loose balls to keep them alive. He was in the right spot at the right time for a few easy buckets, and had notched a double-double by the under-12 timeout (the first of his career), with the Irish leading 47-44.

The Wolfpack began to make a run with a couple transition baskets, with Middlebrooks finally redeeming himself by making a layup for his first points. N.C. State tied the score at 51-51 until a heady foul-bait by Burton got him to the line and the Irish reclaimed the lead. This apparently re-activated the see-saw from the first half, as a wide open Middlebrooks promptly knocked down a three to re-take the lead, and Davis took it back on an and-one off of a nice seal of his defender and a great feed from Burton. Notre Dame held a narrow 55-54 advantage at the timeout with 7:20 to go.

Davis would make his free throw and Allocco would get yet another three after a Njie block on the other end to stretch the Irish lead to five. Both teams played like garbage for the next few minutes by turning the ball over like mad and taking miserable shots. Burton and Middlebrooks each got to the free throw line, but there was no other scoring until N.C. State’s fifth foul triggered the under-4 timeout with the Irish leading 60-56.

The last stanza got off to a great start when Jayden Taylor slipped when trying to recover to Shrewsberry on a pick-and-pop. He was late, and Shrewsberry made him pay for three points. Dontrez Styles would answer the three on the other end to cut the lead back to four. Ben Middlebrooks committed his fourth foul by reaching in on Burton to put the Irish one away from the bonus, but Davis got blocked and N.C. State leaked out for yet another transition bucket.

The silly Middlebrooks foul came back to bite the Wolfpack on the next possession when Jayden Taylor committed a block on Allocco, who got the lead back to four by hitting both free throws with two minutes to play. Then, Middlebrooks got wrapped up by Njie on the next possession and made both foul shots to get things down to one possession. Burton would then miss a contested three late in the shot clock, and Njie fell going for the offensive rebound, which left the Irish without much rim protection on the ensuing Wolfpack fast break. N.C. State tied the score with a minute to go.

Notre Dame couldn’t get a good look on the next possession. Burton got stopped on his drive and kicked it out to Shrewsberry, who threw up an awful brick, and N.C. State came down with the board. They would call timeout with 33.5 seconds left, and 23 seconds remaining on the shot clock. When play resumed, Notre Dame forced N.C. State to burn most of those 23 seconds, but a nice pass from Marcus Hill to Middlebrooks with a second left on the shot clock led to a foul on Shrewsberry.

Middlebrooks made just one free throw, giving the Irish a good chance to win it in regulation with 11.2 seconds remaining. The Irish got the ball over mid-court and called timeout to set up the final play. Oddly, Tae Davis found himself on the bench in favor of J.R. Konieczny. Burton would take the inbounds pass, drive right at Taylor, and run into help from Middlebrooks. He doubled back to the elbow and shot a tough jumper over an outstretched Taylor that was short off the front of the rim, and no Irish player could corral the rebound for a putback.

The Irish record fell to 1-3 in conference and 7-8 in what has been a nightmare season closing out games. No. 4 Duke lurks on Saturday with the Irish having the complete opposite of momentum going into that contest.

Bullet Points

• The starters played almost the full first nine minutes of the game until Micah Shrewsberry subbed in Nikita Konstantinovskyi, Julian Roper, and J.R. Koniezcny all at once.
• Burton fouled and injured N.C. State forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield’s arm on a layup attempt near the middle of the first half, though there was nothing particularly dirty about the foul, and Huntley-Hatfield returned in the second half.
• Shrewsberry rebounded from a 0-for-4 start from three to go 3-for-7 the rest of the way. Shooters gotta shoot.
• Njie’s career night stalled at the aforementioned under-12 timeout, as he wouldn’t record a point or rebound the rest of the way.