Kebba Njie didn’t start Wednesday’s night’s game at Boston College for Notre Dame men’s basketball.
Two halves and nearly two overtime sessions later, the 6-foot-10 forward made sure Notre Dame went home as a winner. Njie grabbed a Markus Burton shot that was disrupted by the BC defense and put it back for the go-head score in a 97-94 victory.
“Kebba picked me up,” Burton said in a postgame interview on the ESPNU telecast. “Obviously, he didn't get the start today, but he came down here and competed like he wanted to. He won us this game today.”
Njie was fouled on his layup, but he missed the ensuing free throw. That required Notre Dame to get one last defensive stop to wrap up the win. Sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry contested a Dion Brown fadeaway, and Burton grabbed the rebound, got fouled and made both free throws before the Irish watched a final heave missed by Donald Hand Jr.
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Notre Dame’s bench players rushed the court to celebrate a comeback victory that ended a challenging three-game losing streak for the Irish (11-13, 5-8 ACC).
“We just stayed true to ourselves,” said Burton, who scored a career-high 32 points. “It's been a rough time. We've been going through a lot of ups and downs. We've been in hard-fought, close games all [month], and today we were able to come back and get this victory, and it feels real good.”
Burton, who scored eight of Notre Dame’s 17 points in the two overtime periods, had to work hard for his 32 points in a little more than 46 minutes of action. The sophomore guard shot 12-of-29 from the field (41.4%) and 1-of-8 from 3 (12.5%), but his point total was lifted by hitting seven of his nine free throws (77.8%).
Head coach Micah Shrewberry excluded Njie from his starting lineup for the first time since a loss to Georgetown on Dec. 16, 2023. Njie started 46 consecutive Notre Dame games since early last season before starting Wednesday night on the bench.
Njie came off the bench behind 6-10 forward Nikita Konstantynovski, who made his first start at Notre Dame as a graduate transfer from Monmouth. Njie played just under 20 minutes in regulation but never left the court in the two five-minute overtime sessions. He finished with a career-high 12 rebounds with seven points and two blocks.
Both Njie and Konstantynovskyi drew 6-9 center Chad Venning as their main defensive assignment. Venning finished with a team-high 21 points for Boston College (10-14, 2-11), but he grabbed only one rebound all night before fouling out on Njie’s game-winning basket.
“At the start he was a little bit trying to get it all back at once, right?” Micah Shrewsberry said in his postgame radio interview. “To prove like I should be starting and everything else — even at the start of the second half. But I think once he got back into the game, he really just bought into being really, really tough defensively, making Venning take some tough shots over the top of him, getting every rebound and then finishing baskets when they were helping and guys were dropping it off to him.
“He made some huge plays when it was needed when he could have just pouted because he wasn't starting.”
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Notre Dame as a team could have folded in the second half at Conte Forum in Chestnut Hill, Mass. The Irish led by as many as six points with 7:19 remaining in the first half, but Boston College closed out the first 20 minutes strong and led 41-35 at the break. The Eagles, who made 60.7% of their shots from the field in the first half, continued to dominate offensively with a lead that grew to 14 points twice in the first six minutes of the second half.
After Notre Dame chipped the lead down to double digits, Burton and junior forward Tae Davis took over for the Irish. Davis scored 10 of his 20 points in the final 10:30 of regulation. Burton added 10 points in the final 6:43, including a pair of free throws to tie the game with 26 seconds left that eventually forced overtime.
The 17 points Notre Dame managed in the two overtime periods came from Burton (eight), Njie (five) and Davis (four). Davis, who scored a game-high 26 points in a 78-60 home win over Boston College on Jan. 13, finished 7-of-16 shooting from the field and 6-of-9 from the free throw line.
Notre Dame won for the first time without starting guard Matt Allocco, who missed his third consecutive game with a right wrist injury. Freshman Sir Mohammed, who made his third career start in Allocco’s place, scored five points while logging just 15:26.
Senior guard Julian Roper II played 21:26 off the bench, but his night ended when he was ejected for a flagrant 2 foul in the second overtime. Roper dove to the ground with Braeden Shrewsberry battling Hand for a loose ball on the floor. While Roper reached forward a ball Shrewsberry already had tied up, Roper’s weight went left where his knee drove into the midsection of Hand.
The sequence, which started with 1:22 remaining in the second overtime, nearly cost the Irish the game. Notre Dame’s three-point lead turned into a one-point deficit when Hand made a pair of free throws and Brown made a layup on the ensuing possession as a result of the flagrant 2.
Burton then missed a pair of free throws that could have put Notre Dame in the lead with one minute remaining. Njie’s game-winning bucket followed a key defensive possession that ended in a shot clock violation on Boston College.
“Our message was win anyway,” Micah Shrewsberry said he told his team after the flagrant review. “Despite what happens, despite what's called, you can't go back and change it. We talked about the next possession. What’s the most important thing on the next possession?
“And they scored to take the lead, and we bet right back and went and got to the free throw line and got a bucket. Now we take the lead back. Just huge play in that moment when we could have folded.”
Notre Dame will return to South Bend, Ind., to host Louisville (19-6, 12-2 ACC) on Sunday in Purcell Pavilion (8 p.m. EST on ACC Network). The Cardinals trounced NC State, 91-66, on the road Wednesday night.
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