SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (6-2) almost pulled off a last-second rally against Syracuse (4-4) to kick off ACC play on Saturday. Down five, with under 1:20 to play, Cormac Ryan and Marcus Hammond recorded back-to-back three-point plays to go up 61-60, but the Orange answered with 14 on the clock. Notre Dame couldn’t connect on the buzzer-beater, falling 62-61.
Dane Goodwin led all ND players with a near double-double, 16 points, nine rebounds. Cormac Ryan continued to hit three’s following his Michigan State performance, converting 4-of-8 today to register 14 points. Freshman Ven-Allen Lubin rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points and eight rebounds.
How It Happened
Notre Dame started 3-of-4 from beyond the arc to jump out to an early 13-8 lead. Goodwin connected on his first 4-of-5 from the field and had 10 points by the 13:20 mark.
A Syracuse 6-0 run over 1:40 gave the visitors their first lead of the game at 19-18, but Trey Wertz answered immediately with a three.
8:19 in the first half marked a significant moment as grad transfer Marcus Hammond recorded his first bucket with the Irish, hitting from deep to give the Irish a 27-23 lead.
Syracuse fired off another short run (7-0) to reclaim the lead at 30-27, but the Irish answered with another three, this time from Ryan. Starling and Goodwin each scored buckets before the half but the game was ultimately tied at 35-all at the midway point.
Goodwin led at the half with 13 points on 5-of-8 shooting, which included a perfect 3-for-3 clip from three. Right behind him was Ryan with nine points. On the other end, it was Syracuse’s big man Jesse Edwards that was doing most of the damage down low, scoring nearly half of the team’s points with 16.
Out of the half, the first four Irish buckets came from four different players including treys from Starling and Wertz, but both sides continued to throw punches in the back-and-forth battle.
Lubin asserted himself with an and-one at 13:07, which tied the game at 48. Later, Lubin threw down a thunderous alley-oop at 9:15.
Irish had back-to-back open three looks at the top of the arc but couldn’t convert, down 58-55 at the 3:43 media timeout. Unfortunately for the Irish they ultimately suffered over a four-minute scoring drought. Fortunately for the Irish, ‘Cuse only had a five-point lead with two minutes left in regulation.
Enter Ryan, who connected on a big three with 1:16 on the clock to cut it to 60-58. An Irish defensive stand later and this time it was Hammond with a big and-one with the shot clock winding down which gave the Irish a 61-60 lead with 29.5 seconds left.
Out of the Syracuse timeout, the Orange converted on its next play with a layup, making it 62-61 visitors. Irish then had the ball with a chance to win it with 14.2 seconds left. With fouls to give, Syracuse brought the clock down to seven seconds. After the in-bounds play, the Irish were forced to take a tough three in the corner and it fell short.
Up Next
The Irish have two more games at home next week, starting with Boston on Wednesday, Dec. 7, at 7 p.m. Then the Irish welcome Marquette on Sunday, Dec. 11 at 4 p.m. – which will be John Shumate’s Ring of Honor.
— ND –