While Niele Ivey’s squad is playing its worst games of the season, the Notre Dame basketball team is staging some of its best performances as the regular season comes to an end. That includes an incredible, four overtime win against Cal on Saturday afternoon that allows the Fighting Irish to continue to have hopes for a surprising good seed in the ACC tournament should everything else go right.
For now though, it’s time to focus on what was the longest regular season ACC game in the conference’s history. A game that looked like it would end in victory for either team, depending on which second you’re talking about.
The Notre Dame basketball team emerged as a 112-110 victor thanks in large part to sophomore guard Markus Burton. The man who who ACC freshman of the year a season ago has had an up and down campaign this year complete with an injury. However, his 43 points kept the team in the game right up until he fouled out.
Notre Dame basketball rallies for historic win
Once Burton did foul out, it was time for Matt Allocco to step up. Allocco scored 10 of his 24 points in the fourth overtime, including hitting two of his four three pointers.
The Irish finish the regular season at 14-17 and that’s certainly not the kind of schedule Micah Shrewsberry and company were hoping for when the campaign began. However, they’ve won three of their last five and one of those losses was a 3-point defeat to a very good Wake Forest squad.
Now the Notre Dame basketball team waits to see what seed they are in the ACC Tournament. If they get a little help, they could be as high as the No. 9 seed. Right now, they’re sitting at No. 12 and just happy they don’t have to worry about making the conference tournament at all.