Another winnable game slips away from Notre Dame, this time on a Georgia Tech buzzer-beater
White-knucklers at McCamish Pavilion might not top the list of things Mike Brey will miss the least when he steps aside as Notre Dame head coach next month. There’s the wild state of college basketball, for starters. There’s the annual task of trying to compete with the titans on Tobacco Road without a bunch of future draft picks.
But Wednesday should have reminded Brey that cutting the annual trip to Midtown Atlanta from his might be good for his health – or at least his heartrate.
Notre Dame offered up one more tense contest under Brey at Georgia Tech, the norm for when these two get together at McCamish. It ended as another one that got away from a team that has let too many get away this season. Way too many. This one, per KenPom, was the most winnable game left on the schedule.
The Irish lost to Georgia Tech 70-68 Wednesday on guard Lance Terry’s putback layup as time expired, the ninth game decided by six or fewer points in Notre Dame’s nine trips to McCamish since joining the ACC. The last three have been a buzzer-beater, an overtime game and a missed potential game-winner at the horn.
Terry’s basket drew the curtains on a 16-8 Yellow Jackets run to end the game. He inbounded the ball on the sideline with 5.3 seconds left, stood at the top of the key and then darted to the lane undetected when guard Kyle Sturdivant fired up a baseline jumper. The closest body to him as he arose was a teammate. He tapped Sturdivant’s shot off the glass and into the basket just ahead of the buzzer.
That play put the dagger in Notre Dame (10-14, 2-11 ACC). The Irish, though, were shut out the rest of the way after guard Cormac Ryan’s free throws tied the score at 68 with 1:55 left. They shot 41.1 percent overall and 32.1 percent in the second half. Forward Nate Laszewski had 16 points and was one of five double-figure scorers for the Irish.
Georgia Tech (9-15, 2-12), the owners of KenPom’s lowest-rated offense among ACC teams in conference play, shot 45 percent overall and 38 percent on 3s. The Yellow Jackets ended a nine-game skid that included a loss to Louisville one week earlier.
Those final 115 seconds were suspenseful, though not pretty. They were reminders of why these two teams have four combined ACC wins and are in the express lane toward playing on the first night of the conference tournament.
Terry missed a go-ahead dunk with 1:07 to go. Ryan had an unobstructed path to the hoop on the next possession, but sent his layup attempt too strong off the glass. Georgia Tech guard Deivon Smith followed with a pull-up jumper miss from inside 10 feet. Terry’s putback marked the Yellow Jackets’ first points since 2:58 remained. Notre Dame’s final shot was a Laszewski miss in the lane with 26 seconds to go.
“We had some pretty good looks,” Notre Dame assistant coach Hamlet Tibbs said. “C-Mac had a nice drive to the rim, got it on the backboard and it didn’t go in. Next possession, Nate lowered his way into the paint and had a pretty decent look over a smaller defender. It just didn’t drop.”
Brey appeared to react to a Ven-Allen Lubin blocked layup with 1:15 left like he thought it was goaltending on Georgia Tech. The ball looked like it might have been in the cylinder when Georgia Tech forward Ja’von Franklin blocked it. Brey did not speak to reporters postgame.
Notre Dame seemed motivated to avoid a tense final two minutes when it ripped off 10 straight points to take a 60-54 lead with 7:59 left. Laszewski and guard Dane Goodwin made 3-pointers that gave the Irish that 6-point lead, their largest of the night. Notre Dame then went 5:15 without a field goal and didn’t make one again until it trailed 68-64.
Lubin, a freshman forward, returned after missing two games with an ankle injury and made his first career start. He finished with a career-high 13 points, 7 rebounds, 1 block and 4 fouls in 22 minutes.
