Braeden Shrewsberry scored a game-high 22 points, Tae Davis produced 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Notre Dame went wire-to-wire for a 77-65 nonconference victory over Dartmouth on Wednesday night in South Bend, Indiana.
Graduate transfer Matt Allocco, who faced Dartmouth multiple times during his three years at Princeton, added 12 of his 16 points in the second half for Notre Dame (6-5), which shot 52.5 percent from the field.
Jackson Munro scored 17 points off the bench to lead five players in double figures for Dartmouth (4-5), which shot just 6 of 33 (18.2 percent) from 3-point range — well shy of its average of 10.4 makes and 34.3 percent accuracy entering the game.
Davis, who hit nine of 13 shots, attacked the rim from the outset as his dunk and pair of layups staked the Irish to a 17-13 lead at the 10:56 mark. Dartmouth, meanwhile, launched 13 of its first 18 shots from beyond the arc, but hit just three.
Dartmouth switched to a 3-2 zone to limit Notre Dame’s drives, and the Big Green trimmed a 23-13 deficit to 25-21. Jayden Williams (13 points) rained in a 3-pointer, Connor Amundsen (10 points) drove for a layup and Romeo Mythril slashed for a layup that became a three-point play.
Notre Dame used the last media timeout of the timeout to draw up ways to get Davis the ball in the middle of the zone. On three consecutive possessions, he posted for two layups and then hammered home a dunk to push the lead to 37-25 with 1:12 to go.
On the following possession, Dartmouth returned to man-to-man and Davis took his man off the dribble for another layup and a 39-28 halftime lead.
Davis worked for two more layups in the opening three minutes of the second half to increase Notre Dame’s lead to 47-30, then passed up another chance in the post so he could feed Allocco for an open 3-pointer.
When Dartmouth came out of the first media timeout and produced seven points in 64 seconds — a Ryan Cornish driving layup, a Williams putback and an Amundsen 3-pointer in transition — Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry called a timeout in frustration with the lead down to 57-44 with 13:07 to play.
Brandon Mitchell-Day continued Dartmouth’s run with an open layup that cut the margin to 11, but Allocco hit a jumper in the paint, Shrewsberry cashed in a step-back shot and Allocco converted a layup on the break to restore order.
Notre Dame played its fifth consecutive game without point guard Markus Burton, who averaged 18.2 points and 4.3 assists before hurting his knee Nov. 26 versus Rutgers.