The schedule makers did Notre Dame no favors for the first two Saturdays of December. It had to open ACC play against No. 8 Miami, which is fresh off a Final Four appearance. Another top-10 program, Marquette, will host the Irish in exactly one week. The first of these tough games ended in a 62-49 loss to the Hurricanes.
In all fairness, the Irish (3-4, 0-1) played like the better team for most of the first half, so that’s something to build on. But the Hurricanes (6-1, 1-0) soon scored 12 unanswered points to go up by double digits, and the Irish never recovered. In the second half, they couldn’t cut the deficit any closer than six and were held scoreless for the final five minutes, missing their last 10 shots.
Matt Cleveland, one of the top shooters in the ACC, showed why he has that distinction by leading the Hurricanes with 14 points while shooting five of sevem from the field. He also had four steals. Norchad Omier and Nijel Pack had 13 points apiece with Omier also grabbing 13 rebounds.
[autotag]J.R. Konieczny[/autotag] led the Irish with 14 points, 12 of which came on a game-high four 3-pointers. [autotag]Tae Davis[/autotag] completed the first double-double of his collegiate career with 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. [autotag]Markus Burton[/autotag] had six assists but scored only six points on three-of-11 shooting, which included missing all five of his 3-point attempts.
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