Notre Dame MBB falters when it matters most in loss to Boston College
The Notre Dame men's basketball team is on its longest losing streak of the head coach Micah Shrewsberry Era.
But it's not as low of a point as the four-game losing streak might indicate.
There are times when Notre Dame's young core flashes winning habits, like J.R. Konieczny forcing a turnover on the first possession of the game or Markus Burton driving in the lane, gathering himself and kicking it out to Braeden Shrewsberry for a made 3-pointer in the second half.
Although Micah Shrewsberry's nine-man rotation showed signs of growth, the Irish had too many miscues from an execution standpoint — unrelated to their effort — in a 61-58 loss to Boston College on Saturday.
“Just gotta find a way. Got to find a way to not make the same mistakes every game," coach Shrewsberry said. "Find a way to do some things that lead to winning. Do more things that lead to winning. We’re doing some things that are. We need to do more of that ... [we] won’t have this feeling anymore."
Notre Dame (7-13, 2-7 ACC) finished with a better shooting percentage from the free-throw line than Boston College (12-8, 3-6 ACC), finished even in team rebounding at 32 apiece and scored more second-chance and bench points than head coach Earl Grant's team.
But as what's become normal in Shrewsberry's first season with Notre Dame, the Irish didn't capitalize in enough moments in the second half.
Whether it was Julian Roper II's failure to box out Boston College forward Devin McGlokton late or Burton neglecting his defensive principles and leaving Claudell Harris Jr. open in the corner for two consecutive 3-point shots, Notre Dame's mental lapses were apparent.
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Those mistakes translated to offense, where eight of Notre Dame's 13 turnovers were committed in the second half. Dating back to their December loss to Georgetown, the Irish have committed at least 13 turnovers in every game since — and Burton leads the pack with 44 total. Burton had five turnovers against Boston College, who didn't utilize full-court pressure but instead were aggressive in the half-court on guard pick-and-rolls.
“Very frustrating … that’s one of the things that’s holding us back," Shrewsberry said. "I didn’t think we guarded particularly well in the second half, but we scored it OK. We scored it better than we have … just can’t keep turning the ball over. Can’t keep making mistakes."
After Saturday, the Irish are averaging 60.8 points per game, which would have ranked 348th in Division I out of 351 before Saturday's games. Konieczny paced the Irish with 15 points, with Braeden Shrewsberry (14) and Burton (10) rounding out players who scored in double digits.
All 14 of Shrewsberry's points came in the second half, including a late 3-pointer with under two seconds left. Burton scored eight of his 10 in the second half, when he saw a slight dip in playing time, in favor of Roper and Logan Imes, due to his turnovers.
Notre Dame went without points for over six minutes in the first half and only got two combined made field goals from forwards Carey Booth, Tae Davis and Kebba Njie — all of whom are starters — in the game. After a deflection was ruled last touched by Boston College, Njie was schemed open on a sideline out-of-bounds play with two seconds left — and hoisted what would have been a game-tying 3-pointer — but the shot bounced off the rim.
“We’ve gone back and tried to really simplify what we do and how we play, what spots we line up in, what plays were running," Micah Shrewsberry said. "I’m trying to change a lot of stuff to make it as simple as possible for us, so we’re not thinking [and] we’re just trying to execute in those moments.
“You just gotta get better. Part of that’s on us as a staff — we've gotta switch to some of that stuff earlier. And now, maybe we’re better at it now ... just a little bit of game slippage that we have to overcome so we don’t have those scoring droughts."
Konieczny paced the Irish with 15 points, with Shrewsberry (14) and Burton (10) rounding out the double-digit scorers. McGlokton led Boston College with 15 points, and the Eagles' leading scorer, Quinten Post, finished with 10 points — all in the second half.
The 6-foot-7, 204-pound Konieczny, who redshirted last season under former head coach Mike Brey, attempted 16 shots, only two short of his career-high 18 field goal attempts. Konieczny made his presence felt defensively with eight rebounds and three steals, including one on the game's first possession.
Konieczny went on an 8-0 run by himself in the first half and has emerged as ND's second primary scorer in the starting lineup by finishing with at least 10 points in four of the last five contests.
“I just had open shots, so I was just taking it," Konieczny said. "I was trying to be a little more aggressive today. Those shots that I’m taking, I work on those every single day after practice … I was just trying to do whatever I could to get my team a little momentum."
"These guys, they found me. Hats off to these guys for doing that first of all … I think after that … the momentum kind of shifted, [and] everybody else started to get a little more comfortable.”
Notre Dame begins a three-game road trip next Wednesday at Virginia (15-5, 6-3 ACC). The Irish defeated the Cavaliers 76-54 in Notre Dame's conference home opener in December. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. EST on ESPN2.
The Irish only have one true road win on their résumé this season — an overtime victory at Georgia Tech — and have seven of their final 11 games in road atmospheres, including at nationally ranked programs Duke and North Carolina, who make up the top 3 of the ACC with Virginia.
"Road environments are hard, but you just have to play winning basketball," Shrewsberry said. "You've gotta playing winning basketball at home. You've gotta play winning basketball on the road. Wherever it is you have to do those things."
“And then you've gotta fight. You've gotta be a little bit tougher ... because things aren’t gonna go your way. As much as I feel like things don’t go our way at home with the whistle, things definitely ain’t going your way on the road, so gotta play through it, gotta fight through it and gotta have some mental toughness.”
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