Notre Dame 77, Dartmouth 65: The new “big three” handle the Big Green

A brutal closing stanza made a comfortable win look closer than it was

Oh my goodness this actually happened | Matt Cashore-Imagn Images

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish were in need of a somewhat pressure-free confidence-boosting win with the Dartmouth Big Green in town for a Wednesday night buy game, and for the most part, that’s what they got. Dartmouth had knocked off ACC rival Boston College a couple weeks back on the strength of a 17-for-31 shooting barrage from the three point line, so a win wasn’t a given.

Despite getting some GREAT looks from deep against the Irish defense, particularly in the first half, the Big Green could not repeat that performance, and that more or less sealed their fate against a physically superior team. The triumvirate of Tae Davis, Matt Allocco, and Braeden Shrewsberry pretty much did whatever they wanted, combining for an efficient 58 points on 23-for-37 shooting, which is what you’d expect against the No. 322 team in the KenPom rankings.

Notre Dame got off to a hot start with Shrewsberry hitting a three and Julian Roper getting a rare chance to play bully-ball under the hoop against the undersized 5’11’ Connor Amundsen for a quick two. Allocco similarly exploited a size advantage on the ensuing possession for a two off of the glass, but Dartmouth kept the game close at 7-6 on the strength of a couple threes.

Davis went to work after that. He and J.R. Konieczny are theoretically the two guys that should be an absolute matchup nightmare for an undersized Ivy League team, and while Konieczny wasn’t able to get going, Davis found an early groove, scoring six of the next ten Irish points, including this beauty:

The Irish were able to push out to a ten point lead on the strength of a nice dish from Allocco to Njie for a layup and Roper making a behind-the-back on a drive-and-finish between two defenders (seriously, Dartmouth, get it together). However, Jayden Williams hit one of the Big Green’s toughest threes of the night and Amundsen got an and-one on a pretty weak foul by Garrett Sundra to keep things close. Notre Dame led 23-18 at the under-8 timeout.

The game went scoreless for a couple minutes until the Bizzarro World nature of this game resumed and Roper attracted way too much defensive attention because Amundsen couldn’t handle him. That led to an easy assist to Njie, whose man had deserted him to help on the offensive terror that is Julian Roper. Shrewsberry hit a runner and a high-arc three on the next couple of possessions, and then he found Nikita Konstantinovskyi under the hoop, who got fouled and made one of two free throws (a bank shot!) to push the lead to eight at the under-4 timeout.

The game plan for most of the last four minutes was to get the ball to Tae Davis either going downhill toward the hoop or in the post, and unsurprisingly, that worked against an overmatched Big Green team. Davis made four field goals in the last stint before the break. Meanwhile, the Irish defense clamped down, even forcing a couple turnovers down the stretch. Micah Shrewsberry was having his team switch on ball screens, which often resulted in a guard matched up on Dartmouth big Brandon Mitchell-Day, but Notre Dame was generally able to deny the ball to the paint and prevent the Big Green from exploiting the matchup. The halftime score was 39-28 in favor of Notre Dame.

Dartmouth’s only chance in the second half was for the Irish to come out of the locker room complacent and to start hitting some of the many, many threes they were attempting. Neither of those things happened. A ‘1’ (free throw) from Roper, a ‘2’ by Davis on a drive and lay-in off the glass, and a ‘3’ by Shrewsberry all went unanswered, and the Big Green called timeout in order to stem the tide.

The timeout didn’t do anything to slow down Davis, who was on a mission to make sure everyone in the gym understood that no one in the building (let’s face it — on either team) could guard him. He banged against his defender for a bucket, and a couple possessions later drew enough attention to free up Allocco for a three. Perhaps remembering that shooting is legal, Allocco drained another one on the following possession, stretching the lead to 18 after the first five minutes of the half.

Still, Dartmouth found a way to get enough quality looks to keep things from getting out of hand, and despite the Irish offense humming, the defense was sloppy enough that the Big Green couldn’t be put away. An airballed three was put back by an unboxed Jayden Williams, and Amundsen put in an open corner three to shrink the lead to 13. Micah Shrewsberry was enraged and called timeout. However, the Irish went cold when play resumed and an easy transition bucket by Mitchell-Day cut the deficit to 11 when the under-12 timeout hit.

When play resumed, Allocco was able to stop the bleeding with a pull-up jumper in the paint late in the shot clock, and Shrewsberry followed suit on the next possession. A fast break Allocco layup brought the lead back to 17 before Dartmouth could blink. The Big Green had a couple answers, but a nice back-cut for an easy layup by Allocco and a Shrewsberry “screw it” three when no one else was moving went in to keep Dartmouth from getting any momentum. The lead was stretched to 70-52 when Konstantinovskyi was finally able to capitalize on his size advantage for a nice and-1 post lay-in.

Dartmouth was able to grind the lead down to 10 at the two minute mark on the strength of an 8-0 run, which pissed off Coach Shrewsberry again and elicited a timeout. However, the Big Green were just down by too many, and after netting a free throw to put it within nine, they started fouling the Irish with about 90 seconds left in the game, and Notre Dame iced it at the charity stripe.

Bullet Points:

• Logan Imes executed a spin move through two defenders for a layup (pictured above) unlike anything I’ve ever seen him do before. That he even felt the confidence to attempt such a move speaks volumes about the opponent the Irish were up against.
• I’m convinced that this stretch without Markus Burton is huge for Braeden Shrewsberry’s development as a player. While Shrewsberry plays better alongside Burton because he’s generally getting a better shot selection, he’s been asked to attempt different ways to create his own offense in Burton’s absence, and that experience should be pretty valuable over the long haul.
• While the Irish defense as a whole wasn’t very good at defending the three point line, Kebba Njie deserves a shout-out for some improved close-outs from what he was doing earlier in the season. He even blocked one as Dartmouth was making their late-game run.
• Dartmouth finished 6-for-33 from the three. Given the quality of looks they got in the first half, they probably should have made at least eight by halftime (4-for-19). The Irish may have dodged a bullet.
• I’ve enjoyed former Irish forward Luke Zeller on the broadcast as the color commentator for these ::ahem:: lesser non-conference games.