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Cormac Ryan inspires late Irish run as ND outlasts Georgia Tech in OT

Notre Dame's players huddle during a 73-72 Irish overtime victory on Tuesday night.
Notre Dame's players huddle during a 73-72 Irish overtime victory on Tuesday night. (Notre Dame Athletics photo)

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Floundering Notre Dame had to call a timeout.

The Irish were down seven to an average Georgia Tech team with 3:36 to play and was staring at a sixth straight Atlantic Coast Conference loss to start league play.

Cormac Ryan took control of that sideline huddle — and the moment — in Purcell Pavilion Tuesday night.

“Cormac kind of lit a fire under us …” Ryan’s teammate, Dane Goodwin, said afterward.

“Cormac wants it so bad,” Irish coach Mike Brey said of this graduate student. “I want it for him, because he's invested so much. He's helped me with a voice, so it's like ‘God, let us get this one, because this kid has just been cracking the whip on people, you know, really all season.’”

That moment plays out a lot better historically for this struggling Notre Dame team after it navigated its way back to earn a 73-72 overtime victory.

“Can it count more than one?” Brey jokingly asked after riding such a surprisingly rough path to get to 9-8, including 1-5 in league play, that has included two one-point losses.

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After that timeout, the Irish defense stiffened over the rest of regulation and the Yellow Jackets (8-8, 1-5) managed just two free throws after forging that 63-56 lead.

“We're never not gonna go down swinging,” Goodwin said.

Slowly, the Irish chipped away.

Freshman JJ Starling, who didn’t start a game for the first time in his life and still finished with 16 points, gave the Irish a start with a bucket on a drive and two free throws before Trey Wertz delivered a crucial corner 3-pointer to tie the game at 65 with 52 seconds to play.

Wertz had been 0-for-5 up to that point and 0-for-2 on 3s.

The defense was terrific on the next Georgia Tech possession, forcing a shot-clock violation. And on the ensuing Irish possession, Starling made a slick move to get to the basket. But his layup attempt, under some pressure, rolled around the rim and off with four seconds to play. By the time Georgia Tech corralled the rebound only a second remained, leading to the overtime.

For the first time this season, Brey started five graduate seniors and kept Starling, averaging 12.4 points a game, on the bench for the first 4:41.

“He handled it well,” Brey said of the Baldwinsville, N.Y., product. “We change the lineup sometimes just to change the karma, maybe help a guy do something different. And you know he will start on Saturday (against Syracuse).

“I wouldn't do that to him (not start him against a New York team). But we just needed to change something up, and he handled it like a man, even though that's new territory for him.”

Starling finished 6-for-12 from the field, 2-for-4 from the 3-point line, where he came in shooting 34%, and had three rebounds and a steal — along with four of the 14 Irish turnovers.

“It was kind of a surprise and took a little bit to get used to, but I was ready for it,” Starling said of not starting. “You know, I wasn't complaining. I knew what I had to do going in, and it started defensively. So I made sure I honed in on that.”

There were five lead changes in the overtime.

Goodwin, who led the Irish with 19 points and 12 rebounds, hit a 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 2:16 to go to grab the lead for ND the first time (68-67). Wertz did it again (71-70) with another clutch 3 with 55 seconds to play off a Goodwin feed, and Nate Laszewski (14 points), an 86.8% free throw shooter, sank two with 23 seconds to play to make it 73-72.

A team with some troubling defensive measurables — 320th in the country in field-goal percentage defense, 346th in rebounds per game, 351st in turnovers forced, 348th in steals — locked in during those final seconds.

Kyle Sturdivant, who came into the game averaging 5.8 points a contest, had the hot hand and led the Jackets with 18. His 3-pointer from the corner bounced high off the rim with five seconds to go in the extra session.

The rebound was tipped around, and officials had to review it to see who got possession.

It went to the Yellow Jackets, who had a 42-33 edge on the boards for the night, and the Irish defense was sturdy again. They didn’t give Ja’von Franklin a clean look on his 15-foot attempt, and it bounced off the rim at the buzzer.

“They're a serious group, and it's kind of been my job again to try to get them to smile a little bit and loosen up,” Brey said of his club’s mindset. “Hey, we're going to turn it over some and we had some deflating offensive plays, but that didn't break us tonight.

“That may be a thing that I'll talk to them about tomorrow (Wednesday’s practice), because we had deflating offensive plays and we just kept hanging. So there's an area of growth.”

The crowd wasn’t large. It was announced at a generous 4,502, but Brey noticed the energy and was happy fans hung around after a cosmetically challenged first 20 minutes.

The Irish shot just 37.5% from the field and 4-for-15 (26.7%) from the 3-point line, had just four assists and seven turnovers.

Tech wasn’t much better.

The first true rise from the fanbase came at the buzzer.

Following a Georgia Tech turnover with three seconds left, Starling raced down the floor with the inbounds pass and hit a 3-pointer three feet behind the line at the first-half buzzer to give the Irish a 30-29 edge.

“Our crowd was great,” Brey said. “I mean, we came limping back into town with five losses and you know, it was semi the ugliest game in the history of basketball for a while and we couldn't do anything offensively. Our crowd really helped us, man, down the stretch to believe, so I appreciate them.”

The Irish lead grew to nine early in the second half before Georgia Tech rallied, mostly with its play in the lane. It finished just 8-for-27 on 3-pointers.

The Irish were without a key contributor in freshman forward Ven-Allen Lubin, who has missed two games with an ankle injury but could be back Saturday.

NOTRE DAME 73, GEORGIA TECH 72 (OT): Box Score

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