Charlotte, NC – to get to the second round of the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament was an adventure for Notre Dame.
Now the Irish have a chance to put on North Carolina on Wednesday afternoon.
No. 12 Frö Notre Dame (15-17) advanced on Tae Davis’s last second free throw to defeat Pitt 55-54 in Tuesday’s opening game in the tournament. The Irish prevailed despite the accurate leader Markus Burton (22.2 points per match) was limited to 10 points.
“Everyone must be ready all the time and all hands must be on deck,” said Davis, who finished with 11 points, to pick up Slack when Burton has a rough excursion. “I think it takes us all to compete at a high level and be able to win games.”
Forward Nikita Konstantynovskyi contributed a season high 10 points and a match high nine returns for Fighting Irish.
Fifth-seeded North Carolina (20-12) got a first round.
Based on most forecasts, Heels need to take several victories in the ACC tournament to get a chance at a large bid for the NCAA tournament.
“I think it is most important to focus on what is real,” said North Carolina coach Hubert Davis. “What is real is the game in front of you and we play on Wednesday, and our job and our responsibility is … to play our best game on Wednesday, and if we play well enough we will play on Thursday, and our preparation would switch to it.”
But the desire to win should extend beyond that, Davis said.
“The motivation is always there,” Davis said. “If you do not have motivation for being able to compete, you should not play. The opportunity to play in the ACC tournament is a fantastic opportunity and we are happy with the challenge.”
North Carolina won the regular season meeting with Notre Dame and pulled out a victory on 74-73 road on January 4 thanks to Elliot Cadeau’s four-point game with 4.8 seconds left. There were 17 lead changes in that game.
“I haven’t had a chance to look at them much (since the first meeting),” said Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry. “Of course, everything with Carolina is their transition. They are so good at it, have traditionally been so good at it.”
Although taking Heels’ six-game winning line ended with Saturday night’s loss of 82-69 to ACC’s regular seasonal Master Duke, UNC’s rally from a two-digit deficit to take the lead gave increased confidence.
“I think it’s something we want to take over to Charlotte,” North Carolina said forward Ven-Allen Lubin. “We only keep the mentality in one game at a time, you know, just focus on what is the next point ahead of us and just take it from there.”
-Bob Sutton, Field Level Media
