Notre Dame will look to bounce back from its first loss of the season when it faces Bellarmine on Wednesday night in South Bend, Indiana.
The Fighting Irish (3-1) took to the road Sunday for the first time this season and put Ohio State on the ropes before succumbing 64-63.
Notre Dame made just 1 of 7 shots from the field over the final 3 1/2 minutes and allowed a Christoph Tilly layup with 13 seconds left.
Markus Burton, Notre Dame’s All-ACC guard, had a team-high 14 points but shot just 3 of 14 from the field. Jalen Haralson, part of a heralded four-freshman class, added 13 points for his second straight game in double figures after returning from an early-season concussion.
Micah Shrewsberry, now in his third season as head coach of the Fighting Irish, told reporters after the loss to Ohio State that he thought his team was headed in the right direction.
“I told our team at the beginning of the year that I’m still able to read a bunch of things at the beginning of the year, and everyone says they’re an NCAA tournament team, right? We got here in front of 13,000 people, we played them, so what does that make us?”
The Fighting Irish will return to South Bend, where they have upset three outscored opponents by an average of 24.7 points per game. Bellarmine will have a hard time not being fourth.
The Knights (1-3) are in just their sixth season in Division I after a remarkable run in Division II, which included four Final Fours and the 2011 national championship. The Louisville school has struggled with NIL and player transfers with a 13-49 record over the past two seasons.
Bellarmine lost 94-86 at home to Wofford on Saturday despite 23 points each from Jack Karasinski and Purdue transfer Brian Waddell. Karasinski led the team with an average of 15.4 points per game last season and is averaging a team-high 21.3 in three games this season.
New Bellarmine coach Doug Davenport, who took over from his father Scott, said he believes in his long-term vision for the Knights.
“We’re trying to find the right guys who can thrive in the way we do things, both character-wise and basketball-wise,” Doug Davenport told the Lexington Herald-Leader before the season. “And I really think we did.”
–Field level media
