Notre Dame men’s basketball waited 11 days between games in Purcell Pavilion.
With the Irish fresh off finals and the end of the semester and set to head home for Christmas break, head coach Micah Shrewsberry wanted to make sure his team was locked in for Sunday’s home game against Le Moyne. He emphasized to his players that they needed to have more energy, more focus and be hungrier than the Dolphins.
In addition to being the more talented team, Notre Dame followed through with Shrewsberry’s message in a 91-62 victory to end non-conference play for the 2024-25 season.
“We hadn’t played in forever,” Shrewsberry said. “I thought we needed to be the hungriest team coming out of here to try and get this win. I thought our guys did that.”
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Notre Dame (7-5) did that by setting a season high in points scored even with star guard Markus Burton still sidelined with a right knee injury. The Irish once again turned to forward Tae Davis for an offensive lift without Burton. He scored a game-high 24 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field and 12-of-14 shooting from the free throw line. He grabbed six rebounds and two assists in another well-rounded performance.
Davis averaged 12.8 points in the first six games of the season with Burton in the starting lineup. He scored 18.7 points per game in the six games without Burton. That scoring increase may have been coming from Davis, who averaged 9.2 points last season, regardless, but the need for him to be so involved offensively became undeniable.
“His level of comfort in our system, his level of comfort in his play and what he’s doing and how he’s attacking and everything else, it’s been great,” Shrewsberry said. “We’ve needed it. We’ve needed people to step up with Markus out. Tae’s been a great leader for us on both ends of the court.”
The uncertain timeline for Burton’s return hasn’t become any clearer, so Davis will be tested even more as the Irish roll into ACC play, which starts in earnest Dec. 31 at Georgia Tech (5-7). Notre Dame won its first conference game, a 69-64 home win over Syracuse on Dec. 7, before finishing up the non-conference slate.
“We’re going to err on the side of caution with him,” Shrewsberry said of Burton. “But he’s doing good stuff. You can see progress on a daily basis. I know one thing. I know he’s tired of not playing. If you would ask him, he would have probably played tonight. It’s not up to him, but he is making progress.”
Notre Dame made the outcome of Sunday’s game pretty clear when it hit 60.0% of its shots from the field in the first half. The Irish never trailed and built a 49-30 halftime lead while the Dolphins (5-9) made just 36.0%.
Notre Dame’s balanced offensive attack benefitted from 21 second-chance points with the help of 14 offensive rebounds. The Irish thrived in the paint with 38 points. They assisted on 16 of their 28 made baskets in the game.
Sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry scored 14 points to complement Davis. The other three starters were just slightly under double digits in scoring: forward Kebba Njie (nine points), guard Julian Roper II (eight) and guard Matt Allocco (eight).
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Sophomore guard Logan Imes, who typically plays more of a pass-first role, was more aggressive in scoring a career-high 11 points. He still added four assists and contributed a pair of steals and one block on the defensive end.
“My teammates trusting me to stay aggressive,” Imes said of his offensive output. “I know I work on my game all the time, so just trusting myself as well. Then just taking advantage of the opportunity when I got it. Just trying to find ways to get to the rim and create for others. By creating for others, that opened stuff up for myself.”
Fourteen Notre Dame players took the court by the end of the game. One former Notre Dame player, Robby Carmody, scored 13 points for Le Moyne in a rough shooting day for his return to South Bend, Ind. Carmody, a 6-foot-4 guard, was 2-of-8 from the field. He transferred to Le Moyne after spending last season at Mercer.
Forward Dwayne Koroma led the Dolphins with 22 points in a losing effort.
Notre Dame freshman Cole Certa logged the first five points of his career in his sixth game played. He made a layup with 2:31 remaining in the game before following that up with his first career 3-pointer with 1:02 left.
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