Notre Dame appeared to be headed for another wire-to-wire win, this time against NC State. But youth means inexperience, and that includes in closing out games. The Irish trailed only once in this contest, but it was when it really counted. D.J. Burns Jr. made a layup with 0.6 seconds left, the last of his team-leading 13 points, to give the Wolfpack a stunning 54-52 win at Purcell Pavilion.
The Irish (6-8, 1-2) led by as much as 12 in the first half and had a pair of 11-point leads in the second. But they combined with the Wolfpack (10-3, 2-0) to shoot 15 of 58 (25.9%) in that second half and got their clock cleaned on offensive rebounds throughout the game, 17-5. It came back to haunt the Irish as after a [autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] bucket with 2:10 left put them up, 52-46, they never scored again.
Nursing a two-point lead in the final minute, Konieczny was called for a travel thanks to intense defensive pressure from the Wolfpack, who called a timeout. The 6-foot-9, 275-pound Burns then found a matchup he liked and got a layup to tie the game at 52.
With only seven team fouls, the Wolfpack intentionally fouled [autotag]Julian Roper II[/autotag], a 58.3% free-throw shooter entering the game. Roper missed the front end of the one-and-one, and Michael O’Connell got the last of his team-high seven rebounds, enabling the Wolfpack to call a timeout and set up Burns’ heroics. A last-second long inbound pass went nowhere for the Irish, and the Wolfpack had stolen one in South Bend.
The Irish wasted a solid effort from [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag], the reigning ACC Rookie of the Week who had a game-high 18 points along with four assists. [autotag]Kebba Njie[/autotag] grabbed 11 rebounds in the losing effort.
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