There will come a time when Notre Dame wins close games against top programs again. That shouldn’t be expected when facing a team like No. 14 Duke. Sure enough, the Irish fell to the Blue Devils, 67-59. Believe it or not, this actually was the Devils’ first true road win of the season.
The Irish (6-9, 1-3) held a nine-point lead during a first half in which the Devils (11-3, 2-1) made only nine field goals and were lucky to go into halftime with a two-point lead.
Overall, the Devils shot 35.6% from the field, well below the .497 clip at which they were shooting entering Saturday. But the Irish weren’t much better from the floor at 39.0%, and they shot only 8 of 16 from the free-throw line, which turned out to be the difference in the game.
The Irish never led in the second half but only trailed by four with 41.9 seconds left. Out of a timeout however, a bad pass by [autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] forced the Irish to foul and put the Devils in the double bonus. From then until the end of the game, Jeremy Roach made six free throws to ice the game for the visitors.
While Roach’s late free throws accounted for a third of his 18 points, the night belonged to Mark Mitchell. His 23 points and 14 rebounds both accounted for career highs, and he got 19 of those points and eight of those boards in the second half. It’s unlikely the Devils would have won this game without him.
[autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] led the Irish with 18 points and four assists. All 12 of Shrewsberry’s points off the bench came on four 3-pointers.
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