Notre Dame 68, Rutgers 63: Style points hard to come by

Round Two for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Players Era Tournament featured a tilt with the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. This game appeared to be a get-right spot for the Irish, as with Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey off to the NBA, Rutgers looks much less threatening than they did when they beat Notre Dame a year ago. It’s the first matchup of the season that favors Notre Dame while not a complete lock for a win.

It was an eventful first couple of minutes for Carson Towt, as he generated three additional possessions for the Irish from his work on the offensive glass, but got swatted into oblivion twice at the rim by Rutgers big man Emmanuel Ogbole. The Irish missed their first seven shots, most of them at the rim, before Braeden Shrewsberry got a floater in the lane to go down. A Markus Burton three and a Burton steal-and-score gave the Irish what they needed to offset three early triples put down by Rutgers, and Shrewsberry drilled one from deep to break the tie and give the Irish a 12-9 advantage through six minutes.

The mistakes the Irish were making at the rim were nothing compared to the turnover sloppiness from Rutgers, who had five giveaways compared to zero from the Irish over the first eight minutes. Notre Dame had 15 shots compared to Rutgers’ seven, and after Shrewsberry drilled another deep contested one, the Irish had made all three of their three-point attempts. Notre Dame was doing a great job of keeping Rutgers from getting good looks in the paint; they had taken seven threes and two twos through the first ten minutes.

Consequently, when the outside shooting dried up, the Scarlet Knights went through a tremendous scoring drought between the 14:48 mark and the 7:56 mark. The Irish had some similar, but less extreme struggles. Micah Shrewsberry went to a very weird Logan Imes – Sir Mohammed – Cole Certa – Garrett Sundra – Towt lineup, which predictably struggled to get anything going offensively. Burton and Jalen Haralson had to come back into the game, and they promptly connected for a beautiful alley-oop. Then, Rutgers failed to find Burton in transition and he knocked down a wide-open triple. The Irish led 20-11 at the under-8 timeout, and the feeling was that they could have been up so much more with the way the defense was locked in.

And then, the wheels completely fell off for Rutgers.

First, Shrewsberry found Brady Koehler for an inexcusably open three late in the shot clock. After Rutgers badly missed a three, Haralson made a lay-up and got a steal, which was followed by a beautiful Markus Burton spin move for a (goaltended) lay-up. Haralson would then make another look at the rim to extend the Irish lead to 29-13. The Irish already had totaled eight offensive rebounds, which softened the blow of some good looks not dropping.

A couple turnovers by Sir Mohammed helped Rutgers a bit, but he made up for that with all the work he did sandwiched in-between. First, he made a beautiful bounce pass on a screen-and-roll to Towt for a dunk. Then, he back-tapped an offensive rebound to Shrewsberry for another three. Finally, Mohammed made some good rotations on a possession that led to a Rutgers shot clock violation. It was an eventful set of minutes for him. Unfortunately, after the second of the aforementioned turnovers, Rutgers found their footing a bit with a 7-0 burst to end the half, keyed by the third made three by sharpshooter Dylan Grant. Rutgers took momentum into the locker room, but still trailed 36-24.

The second half started off in absolutely brutal fashion. First, Haralson committed his third foul late in the shot clock. Then, Rutgers hit back-to-back threes with a Haralson turnover in-between. On the second, Mohammed and Haralson both rotated to Grant, leading to Jamichael Davis being open in the corner with no one within a mile of him. Finally, Grant grabbed an offensive rebound over Shrewsberry and hit Davis for a second consecutive three.

In response, the Irish relied heavily upon Burton’s passing (!). He made a couple nice dishes to Mohammed for free throws and a lay-up, and then hit Sundra with a bullet dime on a nice roll to the hoop for another relatively easy lay-in. After he took a break from the assists to score for himself on a fadeaway pull-up 15-footer, he grabbed a steal and kicked it off to Shrewsberry, who made a contested baby-hook off the glass. That stretch was peak Markus Burton, and he deserves a ton of credit for neutralizing Rutgers’ momentum. The Scarlet Knights had cut the lead to five, but the Irish led 50-37 with 14 to play.

Rutgers came out of the timeout with a full-court press, which surprised Logan Imes and the Irish into a ten-second violation after Braeden Shrewsberry lost track of the clock. Shrewsberry would then airball a three, allowing Rutgers to get the lead back to ten with a couple trips to the free throw line. Sundra would airball one of his own the next trip down, but then bounce back with a made triple, which snapped a 1-for-9 stretch from Notre Dame from deep.

Rutgers was still relentless from the three-point line, and some careless play from Notre Dame kept the door open. Davis drilled the tenth triple for the Scarlet Knights at the 8:38 mark, making them 6-for-9 in the half and cutting the Irish advantage to 58-51 at the under-8 timeout. Mohammed committed two what-the-heck-are-you-doing turnovers during this stretch to go along with a difficult errant pass from Burton. The Irish had failed to put Rutgers away, and now they had to just find a way to hold on for a win.

Burton gave the Irish a little boost with his fourth steal and a made jumper, but Davis knocked down his fifth three to cut the lead to four. Rutgers was seemingly dropping every outside shot they took, and Notre Dame was holding on for dear life. Of all people, it was Logan Imes to give the Irish a little breathing room, hitting an in-rhythm three off of a pass from Burton. The shot was absolutely massive, as Notre Dame was searching for anyone besides Burton who could handle the pressure from Rutgers.

Burton, however, was committing an increasing amount of mistakes with the ball, stepping on the baseline in one possession and throwing a very risky cross-court pass to Imes that was stolen. Rutgers finally missed a couple threes, but they were good looks, and the Irish defense was considerably softer than it was in the first half. With four minutes to play, the Irish held a tenuous-looking lead, at 63-56.

Out of the under-4 timeout, Micah Shrewsberry went to an old standard and got Rutgers’ back-up big, Harun Zrno matched up on Burton, who went right at him for a bucket off the glass. After a Rutgers miss, Burton blew by everyone in the half-court for a second consecutive basket. The Irish closer appeared locked in, but true to the narrative of the game, a mistake was looming to keep Rutgers in it. Late in the shot clock, Burton fouled Tariq Francis on a three, who was fishing for it. The lead held at seven with two minutes to play.

Both teams got tied up for jump balls on their next possession, which helped Notre Dame as it effectively ran the majority of a minute off the clock. A series of Irish mistakes, including a needless Imes foul, several leaked offensive rebounds, and Imes and Sundra missing the front-end of a 1-and-1, allowed Rutgers to stay in it to the bitter end. Fortunately, Rutgers missed the front end of a 1-and-1 twice themselves and despite their earlier hot shooting, couldn’t buy a three point shot with the game on the line. The Irish had no field goals for the last 2:52 and no points at all in the last 2:13, making for an ugly finish that looked early on like it might be a masterpiece.

Bullet Points

• The Irish didn’t shoot a free throw during their excellent first half.

• Burton finished with five assists, a mark he hasn’t cleared since last season’s win on November 11 against Buffalo

• In true Burton fashion, the turnovers (6) outnumbered the assists. Mohammed also racked up five turnovers, which is even more inexcusable given his much lower usage. Despite Rutgers’ early sloppiness, the Irish lost the turnover battle 16-to-14.

• The Irish out-rebounded Rutgers 37-to-28, though the battle got a lot closer in the second half.