Braeden Shrewsberry was one of three Notre Dame players in double figures, knocking down six 3-pointers and scoring 25 points as the host Irish snapped a five-game losing streak with a 69-64 victory over Syracuse on Saturday afternoon in South Bend, Ind.
Tae Davis and J.R. Konieczny scored 15 points apiece for Notre Dame (5-5, 1-0 Atlantic Coast Conference), which survived its league opener despite not having leading scorer Markus Burton (18.2 points per game), has an MCL injury.
Donnie Freeman nearly willed the Orange (4-4, 0-1) to a win, scoring 20 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Jyare Davis also finished with 20 points for Syracuse, which has lost two in a row.
Notre Dame led 30-26 at halftime and the two teams were tied at 43 with 12 minutes left in a game where no team ever led by double digits.
A jumper by Njie Kebba put the Irish back in front with 11:58 to play. Freeman’s two free throws tied the game again 8 seconds later.
Kebba was fouled after making a jumper and hit the ensuing free throw for a 59-56 advantage with 5:54 to play, breaking the eighth and final tie of the day.
The Irish were playing their first home game since a stunning loss to Elon on Nov. 22, followed by four more losses. They got off to a strong start on Saturday thanks to Tae Davis, who scored seven quick points and hit a 3-pointer with 15:50 left in the first half to put Notre Dame up 11-6.
Syracuse hit a stretch where it went more than four minutes without a field goal before Jyare Davis ended the drought with a layup that pulled the Orange within 14-13 at the 10:46 mark.
Tied at 16, Konieczny drilled a 3-pointer with 9:31 left and made a layup to spark a 5-0 run. And that would be the end of the scoring for a while.
Syracuse went nearly five minutes without scoring, missing five consecutive shots, while Notre Dame went four minutes without a basket, missing five straight field goals as well.
Both teams finally hit field goals with under five minutes to go. Konieczny scored on a putback for the Irish, and Eddie Lampkin answered with a layup off a steal moments later to cut the Notre Dame lead to 23-19 with 4:27 to go.