Markus Burton has just returned to playing competitive basketball, and there’s been no way to ease back into it.
Not with such a needy team.
But how unfair is this?
Notre Dame’s sophomore guard, averaging 19 points a game, sat out more than a month rehabbing a knee injury — almost eight full games — and, stunningly, in each of his first two games back, he’s been called on to rescue his team from its late failures in the game’s final seconds.
On Saturday, his full-court drive against North Carolina rolled out in a one-point loss at home. And Wednesday night in front of 13,515 in the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C., his stepback jumper from the lane rolled off.
North Carolina State 66, Notre Dame 65.
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Notre Dame dropped to 7-8 overall and 1-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, with a league date against No. 4-ranked Duke set for Saturday (noon EST) at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Losses like these can exact a toll.
Still a long conference season to go, but improving on last year’s 7-13 ACC mark looks like a tall order at the moment.
There was no postgame press conference with head coach Micah Shrewsberry on Wednesday.
North Carolina State knows something about turning a mess into magic, coming off last year’s ACC Tournament run and trip to the Final Four. But this Wolfpack team hardly seems destined to deliver anything close to a repeat.
It’s now 9-6 and 2-2 in the league, with the other league win over Florida State, and losses coming to Virginia and Wake Forest.
The Wolfpack doesn’t do a lot of things particularly well — Marcus Hill (12.6 points) and Jayden Taylor (12.1) are the only two players in double figures — and NC State was in trouble late.
Until Notre Dame lost its way.
Even while building a 10-point lead in the first half and an eight-point edge early in the second, the Irish never looked very comfortable offensively. But they did show some resilience after bowing to the Wolfpack’s increased pressure in the second half.
After Ben Middlebrooks drilled a 3-pointer to give the Wolfpack a 54-53 lead with 7:35 to go, the Irish responded with a 7-0 run.
A Braeden Shrewsberry 3-pointer — he was 3-for-10 from the arc for the night, but ND was a solid 8-for-19 (42.1%) for the game — produced a 63-56 edge with 3:39 to play. ND’s last points, to make it a 65-61 lead, came on a couple Matt Allocco free throws with 2:06 to go.
From there, ND’s offense collapsed, and NC State did just enough — Middlebrooks hit two free throws at 1:45 and a defensive breakdown that led to a driving layup by Hill (15 points for the night) tied it at 65 with 1:07 to go.
That followed an ND possession in which center Kebba Njie was stripped of a rebound off a Burton miss with 1:15 to play and the Irish still up two.
After a Shrewsberry 3-point attempt didn’t come close with 40 seconds to go, Middlebrooks was fouled on the following NC State possession by Tae Davis with 11.7 seconds left. He missed the first free throw but dropped in the second for the 66-65 lead — the 11th lead change of the game.
The Irish called a timeout to set up the final play.
The inbounds pass went to the 6-foot Burton, and he found some space, but he had to shoot over the 6-4 Taylor.
ND fell to 5-18 away from home since the start of last season, but did a lot of things well.
The Irish put five players in double figures for the first time this season, outrebounded the Wolfpack 34-29, held a 28-24 edge in points in the paint and, defensively, forced NC State out of its comfort zone.
The Wolfpack averaged 18 3-pointers a game coming in and went 10-for-27 for the game (37%). They put up 17 3-pointers by halftime.
Eventually, some fell.
Taylor hurt the Irish with his three second-half 3. After scoring just two points in the first half, he finished with 14. Hill led NC State with 15.
For ND, which had 10 turnovers to NC State’s seven, Burton had 15 points, but struggled — going 5-for-15 from the field. Davis had 14, with a career high six assists, Shrewsberry 13, Allocco 11 (with seven rebounds) and Njie 10.
With his 11 rebounds, Njie had the first double-double of his career.
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