Notre Dame blows big lead, falls 77-69 to Syracuse
Back at full health, and a slight 3-point road favorite Saturday at Syracuse, Notre Dame’s game against the Orange provided the Irish a great chance to secure its first ACC road win of the season, win consecutive games for the first time since before Christmas, and complete the first home-and-home season sweep of the ‘Cuse since 1997.
Instead, the Irish (8-10, 2-5) blew a 17-point first-half lead and lost 77-69 to the Orange (9-9, 3-4) to add another chapter to a disappointing and heartbreaking season.
Things became so bad in the closing seconds, Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry was ejected late in a game after emphatically arguing with officials on a couple of late calls that went against his group.
Ejections aside, Notre Dame should’ve won this game and it didn’t
A tale of two halves
Where to begin?
On 5-of-6 shooting to start the game, the Irish jumped to an 11-0 lead, then made 8 straight shots late in the first half to push its advantage to 31-24 with 5 minutes before break.
Sparking the 17-point lead, sophomore point guard Markus Burton scored 16 of 18 Irish points during a 18-11 scoring run for Notre Dame over an 8-minute stretch.
Undeterred, Syracuse stayed engaged, still trailed 38-24 at halftime, but opened the second half on a 16-4 run to pull within 42-40, and turn this into a game with 16 minutes remaining.
Syracuse tied things up at 63-63, then finished the game on a 14-6 run to cap its comeback win.
The Orange outscored Notre Dame 44-27 in the second half and finished the game on a 7-0 run.
After hitting on 5-of-9 on its three-pointers in the first half, Notre Dame went 0-for-5 from long range in the second half.
A tale of two stars
After scoring 22 points in the first half on 10-of-16 shooting — the most points in a single half for Burton during his career — the Irish star cooled off in the second half and managed only 6 points on 2-of-10 shooting.
And while Burton still finished with a game-high 28 points, his disappearing act in the second half helped Syracuse to the comeback win.
On the other side, former Notre Dame guard JJ Starling — who transferred to Syracuse before the 2023-24 season — finished the game with a team-high 21 points, 16 coming in the second half during the Orange game-winning push.
Statistically speaking
Other than the scoring disparity between the second and first halves, a couple of other game stats stood out.
Led by Burton’s 28, the Irish put four players in double figures. Sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry added 14, while junior forward Tae Davis and graduate guard Matt Allocco both had 11.
Notre Dame scored the first 18 paint points in the game, but then barely won the underneath battle 32-28.
The Irish didn’t get a single point off the bench. The Orange got 24.
A sloppy and a tightly-called game, Syracuse went 21-of-34 foul shooting compared to 16-of-18 for the Irish.
Syracuse was the first of seven consecutive opponents the Irish will play with sub-.500 ACC records, which should provide Notre Dame a chance to climb in the ACC standings after a tough schedule stretch?
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