The Notre Dame men’s basketball team will remember its first game of the Players Era Festival for a lot of reasons. Unfortunately, it won’t be for a victory it lost an 85-84 overtime thriller to Rutgers in Las Vegas.
[autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] was lost to a knee injury early in the game, and it’s unknown how serious it is right now. If he’s lost for a long period, it could derail the Irish’s season.
But even without him, the Irish (4-2) engaged in what became a back-and-forth affair with the Scarlet Knights (5-1), featuring 10 ties and 16 lead changes. It only was appropriate that [autotag]Matt Allocco[/autotag] hit a game-tying 3-pointer in the final seconds of regulation to force overtime.
The Knights appeared to have the game won when they went up six with 57.3 seconds left. Instead, Allocco made 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to tie score at 84. The Irish suddenly had a shot at double overtime.
However, [autotag]Cole Certa[/autotag] lost track of the situation and immediately fouled future NBA first-round pick Dylan Harper, who split two free throws to put the Knights back up one. After a pair of Irish timeouts with 3.8 seconds on the clock, Allocco fired up a prayer from 3-point range for a last-second heroic, but he missed, and the Irish had suffered a tough defeat.
Harper set the freshman scoring high for college basketball so far this season with 36 points and also dished out a game-high six assists. Jordan Derkack scored 16 points off the bench. Jerem Williams scored 10, as did future NBA first-round pick Ace Bailey.
Allocco played the entire game and achieved a double-double of 24 points, which included six 3-pointers, and 10 rebounds. He also led the Irish with five assists.
[autotag]Braeden Shrewsberry[/autotag] scored 16 points but shot 6 of 20 from the field, including 3 of 13 from 3-point range. [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] had 15 points but committed a game-high seven turnovers.
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