For 38 minutes, Notre Dame battled Texas Tech as well as it could have. In fact, the Irish had a three-point lead on the Red Raiders and just needed to hold on a little longer to earn a date with Duke in the Sweet 16. Instead, everything on both ends suddenly went south at the wrong time. The Red Raiders scored 10 unanswered points and eliminated the Irish in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 59-53 win in San Diego.
The Irish (24-11) had a 52-49 lead thanks to taking care of the ball, playing solid defense and making shots when they needed to. All of that changed in the game’s final two minutes, and the Red Raiders (27-9) were the beneficiaries.
Out of an Irish timeout with the lead cut to 52-51, Terrence Shannon Jr. stole the ball from Blake Wesley to set up the possession that ended in two free throws for Kevin Obanor, which he earned after being fouled on an offensive rebound. Wesley tried to answer, but his go-ahead layup attempt was blocked by Marcus Santos-Silva, who hit two free throws himself after he was fouled immediately.
The nightmare wasn’t over for Wesley. He turned it over again, leading to another foul that resulted in two successful Red Raiders free throws, this time from Kevin McCullar. Down five and desperate for points, the Irish came up empty on three straight shots. The last of those was blocked and thrown down the court so a completely-alone McCullar could dunk with authority to erase any doubt about this game’s outcome.
Obanor was the star for the Red Raiders as he achieved a double-double of 15 points and 15 rebounds. McCullar had 14 points, as did Bryson Williams. Adonis Arms grabbed seven boards and a game-high four assists.
Dane Goodwin led the Irish with 14 points. In what likely will be his final game for the program, Wesley scored 11 and also had eight rebounds. However, those three turnovers he had in the final two minutes are sure to weigh on him and Irish fans for a long time.
While it was a tough way to end the season, surely any Irish fan would have taken how this team got after such a rough start. Now, we wonder who will be back next year to join highly-touted commit J.J. Starling. Maybe he will get the Irish even deeper in the tournament next year. It sure will be exciting to find out the answer to that question.
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