The Notre Dame 15 Years Tournament was filled with close games and come-from-behind wins. It only seemed fitting that the championship feature both of those. The 2007-08 Irish won the tournament title after defeating the 2006-07 Irish, 85-81, in a game they had to fight for.
The ’07-08 Irish coughed up a six-point first-half lead and trailed by three at the break. The ’06-07 Irish led by as much as 12 midway through the second half and still held a nine-point lead with six-and-a-half minutes left. That’s when the ’07-08 Irish went on a 13-2 run to take a two-point lead. From there, the teams battled back and forth until it came down to the final minute, which the ’06-07 Irish entered with a 78-76 lead.
With 38 seconds left, Luke Zeller hit a 3 on a nice pass from Jonathan Peoples to give the ’07-08 Irish a 79-78 lead. Colin Falls was unable to answer with his own 3, and Rob Kurz got the rebound before being fouled and hitting two free throws to make it 81-78. After the ’06-07 iteration of Kurz missed a shot, the ’07-08 Zach Hillesland cleared the rebound and got it to Zeller, who made two more free throws to put his team up five and ice the game. The points scored in the final 12 seconds made no difference.
The ’07-08 Luke Harangody wrapped up the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player honor with his best performance yet of 27 points and 19 rebounds. In three games, he averaged 22.3 points and 16.3 boards. Kyle McAlarney scored 25 points, including five 3-pointers, to wrap up an equally impressive tournament in which he had a 22.0 scoring average. Kurz scored 10 and joined Harangody and McAlarney in accounting for 19 of the ’07-08 Irish’s 25 free-throw attempts, all of which they made.
Falls and Kurz scored 19 points apiece to pace the ’06-07 Irish. Russell Carter achieved a double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. Tory Jackson scored 10, and their iteration of Harangody grabbed 10 boards off the bench.
