Notre Dame’s flawless endgame sequence clinches upset over No. 10 Kentucky

Notre Dame upsets No. 10 Kentucky with some late-game heroics.

Notre Dame looked around, saw the chaotic start to the college basketball season and thought, “Why not me?”

The 3-4 Fighting Irish hosted the 10th-ranked Kentucky Wildcats on their home court, and despite being overmatched against one of the most talented teams in the country, excellent execution in the final 30 seconds put Kentucky away as another top-10 team bit the dust.

This one was a back-and-forth affair that featured 15 total lead changes. The Wildcats managed a slim two-point advantage at halftime, but Notre Dame overcame that and led by five with less than four minutes to play.

Still, Kentucky wouldn’t go away quietly. It answered and eventually retook the lead on a three with 1:50 to play. As the game was winding down, a missed jumper from Kentucky gave Notre Dame the ball in a tied game with 28 seconds to play coming out of a timeout.

What ensued was an endgame sequence that can’t really be described as anything short of perfection.

After some ball movement, Notre Dame freshman guard Blake Wesley took possession beyond the arc. He drove to the lane before stopping dead in his tracks for a pull-up jumper near the free-throw line that banked off the rim and through the net to give the Irish the lead with 11.7 seconds to play.

With the game on the line, freshman Kentucky guard TyTy Washington Jr. pushed toward the basket on the following possession, but a low-percentage layup in double coverage didn’t land, giving Notre Dame the ball with about six seconds left in the game.

Now, if you know anything about basketball, you know that what the Wildcats wanted to do in this situation was foul to send Notre Dame to the free-throw line and try to get the ball back.

But you can’t foul what you can’t catch.

The Fighting Irish players played a game of hot potato with the ball before Wesley found his teammate, senior Dane Goodwin, streaking down the court unguarded. He connected with Goodwin, who put an exclamation point on the upset win with a slam dunk as the buzzer sounded. The bucket counted, and the players and fans stormed the court at the Joyce Center to celebrate a 66-62 victory.

Goodwin and Wesley tied for the team-high with 14 points, thanks to their last-second heroics.

With the victory, Notre Dame moves to 4-4 on the season and earns its first win over a top-10 team since 2017. The 7-2 Wildcats, meanwhile, suffer their first loss since coming up short against Duke in the season opener. Things don’t get any easier for Kentucky, which faces a ranked Ohio State team in Las Vegas on Saturday in a season that continues to be entirely unpredictable.

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