Louisville 76, Notre Dame 65: Irish couldn’t get over the hump

Notre Dame traveled to Kentucky on Wednesday night to take on an ACC rival, the Louisville Cardinals, and despite playing tough in spots — they just couldn’t get over the hump to even get in position to win this game.

Also… they couldn’t even get the book right.

Late Louisville Scoring Run Dooms Irish, Falling 65-76

LOUISVILLE – The Notre Dame men’s basketball team (11-12, 2-8) showed some grit on the road against a top-25 team, but a late scoring surge from the #24/23 Louisville Cardinals (16-6, 6-4) was the difference maker in a 65-76 defeat. The Fighting Irish started hot with an early nine-point lead and trailed by six at the half. Notre Dame fought to pull within four at 9:29, but that’s when the Cardinals produced a 16-1 scoring run. 

Cole Certa led the Irish with 18 points, draining five triples on the night. Brady Koehler also secured double-digit points with 11 on 4-10 shooting. The freshman also netted four steals and two blocks.

Freshman Jalen Haralson finished with eight points and a team high five assists while Carson Towt recorded six points and a team best 10 rebounds. 

As a team, Notre Dame shot 24-62 compared to Louisville’s 28-65. The Cardinals used their size to their advantage, outrebounding the Irish 46-35, and scoring 40 points in the paint.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Notre Dame built an eight-point lead by the first media timeout (14:56) thanks to a 4-6 shooting start. Four different Irish contributed early with Certa, Haralson, Shrewsberry and Sundra supplying the offense. 

Louisville started 1-9 from the floor but took advantage of a foul on a made three to produce a five-point swing. 

Certa and Shrewsberry halted the Cards’ momentum with back-to-back threes, restoring the lead to nine. Louisville immediately countered by working the ball inside and taking advantage of a pair of ND turnovers to record a 12-2 run over the next four minutes to take their first lead at 19-18. 

Immediately after checking in, Ryder Frost knocked down the corner three to put the Irish back in front with 8:29 left in the half.   

The Irish and Cardinals exchanged leads until the five-minute mark, when Louisville began to pull away with a 14-3 run to go up by ten with a minute left in the half. 

Notre Dame closed out the half with layups from Haralson and Certa to bring the Irish within six at 32-38. 

Each team shot 40 percent from the floor with the Irish shooting 13-32 and the Cardinals shooting 14-35. The Irish shot 38.5 percent from behind the arc, knocking down 5-13, while holding Louisville to 23.5 percent on 4-17 shooting from three.

While the Cardinals led by as much as 8, the Irish continued to chip away. Back-to-back triples from Certa made it a five-point game at 12:43. Three minutes later, the Irish had it to as few as four with a Mohammed jumper and Koehler layup making it 53-57. 

Still a five-point game at 8:13, the Cardinals would go on a 14-0 run to make it 54-73 heading into the final 3:30 of play.

The Irish would respond with an 11-3 run of their own to close it out, but would fall 65-76 in Louisville. 

UP NEXT

Notre Dame returns to Purcell Pavilion this weekend where they will bust out the green jerseys against Florida State. It’s ‘Irish Wear Green, on Saturday, Feb. 7, at 4 p.m. ET, with the game airing live on the CW.