Students returned from Christmas break to eagerly support their Irish men’s basketball team (10-7) against the Miami Hurricanes (15-2) in the fourth conference contest of the year. In what many fans hoped to be a revenge opportunity from the sour loss in football, Notre Dame fell 81-69 in a strong second half effort from the Hurricanes.
Notre Dame scooted out to a 6-0 start with a three-point jumper from junior guard Braeden Shrewsberry and a dunk from freshman guard Jalen Haralson. Miami’s offense then settled in to break 10 points in the first half leading 10-8 with 13:43 left in the half. Freshman forward Shelton Henderson led the Hurricanes in first half scoring the 10 points, and helped operate the offense with savy senior guard Tre Donaldson.
Sophomore guard Sir Mohammed added nine points by going 3-4 in shooting in the first half by attacking the Miami defenders in the paint and getting to the free throw line. Head coach Micah Shrewsberry said after the Clemson game this point brought the offensive aggressiveness to the two-halved game. Micah Shrewsberry added “I thought we were more aggressive in our attack [than Clemson].”
Trailing 32-29, Notre Dame looked for a three to tie the game with just over three minutes to go in the first half. The Irish earned three consecutive offensive rebounds that ended in a 3-pointer from freshman forward Ryder Frost who finished with seven points and two 3-pointers. He hit his second soon after to bring the Irish within two at 37-35.
The half ended in a 39-39 tie with a driving layup by junior guard Logan Imes who finished with an impressive eight rebounds. The Irish, however, had posted 10 turnovers by this point, which constituted a large part of Miami's score, even with below average shooting.
After the break, Miami started the half scorching-hot, picking apart the Irish defense. The Hurricanes went on a 15-3 scoring run to start the half within the first five minutes. While the Irish offense seemed shaky, Miami thrived attacking the paint and creating open looks for shooters.
“I don’t know why we didn’t come out with that [first half] energy and aggressiveness at the start of the second half," Micah Shrewsberry said.
Miami continued the defensive pressure on Notre Dame in the second half, causing an additional eight turnovers and placing suffocating pressure on the ball handling. Junior guard Markus Burton’s absence was certainly felt once again with ball handing and conducting the offense, but as Shrewsberry said “this group has to find a way without him.”
“I felt we needed to ramp up our pressure [against Notre Dame in the second half]," first-year Miami head coach Jai Lucas said. "The big thing was protecting the paint to limit the 3’s.”
Miami led by as many as 13, but Notre Dame was able to temper the storm from an onslaught and stuck around in the second half. In the final five minutes, graduate transfer forward Carson Towt slammed it home to cut the lead to 11 points with 3:48 remaining. After a stop on defense, sophomore guard Cole Certa forced the lead back to single digits on a backdoor cut straight to the hoop forcing the Canes to call a timeout. However, Malik Reneau quickly quieted the crowd and momentum with a basket to get the lead back out to 11. The Irish never closed in closer than eight throughout the rest of the game falling 81-69 to Miami.
In reflecting on the game, Micah Shrewsberry said, “I felt that we played even with them for 36 minutes. Most of our mistakes are in the paint or driving and making that decision in the paint. We got to keep working. It sucks to turn the ball over 18 times.”
The Irish have offensive and turnover challenges to sort out before traveling to Blacksburg to take on the 13-4 Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday at noon on ACC network. Sitting at 10-7 and 1-3 in conference play, the season is far from lost, but it will take a continued strong coaching effort from Micah Shrewsberry without his all-conference scoring leader at the helm.
