Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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56 JANUARY 2025 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED BY JACK SOBLE F or tangible reasons, Notre Dame's Atlantic Coast Conference opener against Syracuse was a must-win game. If they lost, the Irish would have dropped six in a row and fallen to 4-6. They would have been 1-5 against high- major opponents. A team that began the season hoping to make a run at the NCAA Tournament would have been effectively done in early December. If they won, though, the Irish would be in a pretty good spot. They would be 1-0 in ACC play with only two match- ups — buy games against Dartmouth and Le Moyne — until New Year's Eve. While Notre Dame does not know their respective situations, that's around the time it becomes possible to get sopho- more guard Markus Burton and fresh- man guard Sir Mohammed back from knee injuries. But beyond the record, schedule and data points, Notre Dame needed a win in its ACC opener against Syracuse for psychological reasons, too. The Irish had to believe they could win a close game. They had to believe they could win without Burton. With their 69-64 victory at Purcell Pavilion, they had proof. "We needed to see the ball go through late in the game," Notre Dame head coach Micah Shrewsberry said. "We needed to get two hands on a rebound late in the game. We needed to make a couple free throws late in the game, just so they feel like, 'We can do this.'" Failing to do so, on the other hand, could have been demoralizing. Syracuse was without its best player — ex-Irish guard JJ Starling — too. Notre Dame had no excuses. If Shrewsberry and company planned to make noise in the ACC when Burton came back, this was a game they had to win. And they knew it. "It's important for our team," junior forward Kebba Njie said. "If we are able to play like that every night, I think we'll see a lot more numbers in the win col- umn. It was really important for this game, just to get that dub at the end." The Irish and the Orange were tied at 60 with 3:38 to go in the second half, but unlike in single-digit losses to Elon, Rutgers and Creighton, Notre Dame made more plays down the stretch. Fi rs t , i t wa s a l i g h t n i n g - q u i c k three from sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry, who scored 18 points in the second half and tied his career high with 25 overall. Then, Shrewsberry hit another one. By that point, the Irish had allowed two interior buckets but the de- fense had begun to tighten up. From 1:55 to 0:07, no one scored. Notre Dame knew it was facing a shooting- challenged team, so it packed the paint. The Irish made Syracuse beat them from the outside, and they could not. "I feel like we just locked in," Njie said. "That's where we're at our best. When we're playing great defense, it fuels us on offense." Njie flirted with a double-double, finishing with 9 points and 9 rebounds, including 5 on the offensive end. He also picked up an emphatic block late in the second half that forced a shot-clock violation, and he made several key free throws in the final minutes. Shrewsberry said Njie is the player most affected by Burton's absence, be- cause he no longer receives three to five dump-offs for dunks each game. Enter- ing a matchup with a massive, veteran center in Syracuse's Eddie Lampkin Jr., Shrewsberry challenged him in front of his teammates. He responded. "He needed to be more physical with how he was playing, and he did that," Shrewsberry said. "I thought he did a good job guarding Lampkin. I thought he did a good job rebounding. I thought he did a good job setting really hard screens and getting people open." It took Njie's work as an anchor in the paint and strong team defense to lock down the Orange, especially with junior forward Tae Davis dealing with foul trouble. Notre Dame has a long way to go if it hopes to climb back toward its goal of having meaningful games in March. But its win over Syracuse was a start. It gave the Irish hope. Sometimes, hope is all you need. "Without Markus, we can do this," Shrewsberry said. "We can still do it without him. And now, I think that's gonna make us even better when he gets back." ✦ Notre Dame Keeps Season Alive With Win Over Syracuse Sophomore guard Braeden Shrewsberry tied his career high with 25 points in he Fighting Irish's much- needed 69-64 win over Syracuse Dec. 7. PHOTO COURTESY NOTRE DAME ATHLETICS MEN'S B A S K E T B A L L