SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Markus Burton saved Christmas — at least he did for the Shrewsberry family.
The 5-foot-11 freshman guard, averaging 15.5 points a game, connected on 8 of 18 shots, went 2-for-6 on 3s, and hit three of four free throws for 21 points to nudge Notre Dame over Marist, 60-56, Friday night at Purcell Pavilion.
“Like everybody across the country, you want to win this last game before Christmas,” Irish head coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “Because I’m telling you this right now, I'd be a miserable, miserable person for the next three days (if ND had lost), so my wife and kids really, really appreciate this, I'm sure.”
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There was nothing especially pleasing to the eye about the win and the Irish teetered, committing five of their 15 turnovers when Marist (7-3) ramped up the pressure over the last four and a half minutes of the game.
But a 5-7 record going into the holiday break never looked so good to a team scrambling for some happy news, following three straight losses. The last was an embarrassing 65-45 defeat to The Citadel on Tuesday night.
That one took its toll on Shrewsberry, and he spread that pain to his club.
Sophomore forward Tae Davis called the effort “inexcusable.”
But out of that dumpster fire of a performance came some good, per Shrewsberry.
“I don't know if I necessarily want to remember this, but, you know, we sat in there as coaches for a long time after the (Citadel) game,” he said. “And we were like, ‘At some point in time, way down the line, we're gonna remember December the 19th, 2023. Because it changed how we approached, really, everything.”
Dec. 20 was a soul-searching day, not a practice day — “a tough day, but a needed day,’’ he said.
“We had to really take these guys all the way back to day one and talk about our culture, talk about our values and what we lean on when things get tough,” he said. “And I thought that there's some tough conversations that were had on Wednesday, but we didn't practice it all.
“We walked through. We got ready for the game, and then Thursday they came out with an incredible spirit. And then in our shootaround today (Friday), I just stopped it … it was about as energetic as you could get.”
Quite a contrast to what he saw going into and during Tuesday’s contest.
Shrewsberry broke it down to “how we treated each other as teammates.
“How we respected the Notre Dame jersey, that Notre Dame tradition, the guys that had passed through here. And I said, I failed these guys in the foundation, right? You’ve got to have a good culture. You’ve got to constantly reinforce it. You’ve got to constantly talk about it.
“And I didn't do that. We're trying to build this to be sustainable for a long time. And if your foundation isn't good, at some point in time, it's gonna crumble.”
To be sure, there is no magic wand to turn this young team into an Atlantic Coast Conference contender or expect it to challenge a 9-2, 22nd-ranked Virginia team at home (noon) on Dec. 30, but little victories count in that culture-building stage.
And in a close contest Friday, the Irish were clutch from the free throw line, going 18-for-20 (Marist was 7-for-13). Davis was 6-for-6 on his way to a 12-point performance. Freshman Carey Booth added 11 points, six coming on a couple of 3-pointers.
But from the start, it was the Burton show. Nothing has come easily since he poured in 29 in the season opener against Niagara, as teams have given him extra attention to keep him from drives to the rim.
Same went for Marist.
“One of the things that they're really good at is not letting you get to the rim,” Shrewsberry said of a Marist team that is allowing 60 points a game.
So when Burton got into the lane, he tossed up 10- and 12-footers rather than trying to weave his way to the rim in heavy traffic.
“Oh, yeah, the coaches told me this was gonna be a game for me to get in the lane and play off two feet and find my teammates or find shots for myself,” he said.
Recognizing the situation is proof, Shrewsberry said, “where you see his growth as a player and as a point guard. And you know, he's gonna keep getting better.”
Burton had 11 points at halftime, taking 11 of Notre Dame’s 27 shots, and the Irish trailed 25-24 at the break.
Slowly, the Irish pulled away in the second half, helped when Marist’s top scorer, Max Allen, who hurt the Irish inside on 6-for-9 shooting (Marist was 14-for-19 on layups), left for a few minutes with a sore ankle early in the second half.
A banked-in 3-pointer by Booth pushed the Irish lead to 41-33 at the 13:10 mark, and J.R. Konieczny hit a couple of free throws following a technical foul against Marist’s Javon Cooley to make it 43-33 with 12:28 to go.
Because of some solid defense, the Irish survived five turnovers over a four-minute stretch, and a dunk by Davis gave the Irish their biggest lead at 53-42 with 5:09 to play.
But back came the Red Foxes, a team picked to finish eighth in the 11-team Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
With the Irish unable to maintain possessions — five turnovers from 4:47 to 1:15 — Marist charged and Noah Harris’ 3-pointer with 1:36 to play reduced the Irish lead to 56-54.
Then suddenly it was Marist’s turnovers — three over the final two minutes — that helped Notre Dame secure the win from the free throw line.
Davis hit two with 26 seconds left, and Braeden Shrewsberry hit two with 11 seconds remaining.
“We can't win this game, go home for Christmas and forget everything we talked about,” coach Shrewsberry said of small steps. “...There's technical things we needed to do, but there was nothing technical about that game against The Citadel. We just folded under the pressure, right? Because we didn't have anything to stand on. And that was 100% on me.
“But I love the way these guys responded. They picked each other up. There's still moments … when we make young mistakes, but we were holding each other accountable. If something happened during the game, then guys were coming back to the huddle and talking about it.
“They were looking each other in the eye and saying it the right way and accepting it the right way. And that's what you can do when you trust the guy next to you.”
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