Braeden Shrewsberry — the son of coach Micah Shrewsberry — led a balanced attack with a career-high 13 points as Notre Dame rolled to a 75-55 nonconference victory over Maryland-Eastern Shore on Wednesday in South Bend, Ind.
Markus Burton added 12 points, six rebounds and five assists for Notre Dame (3-2), while four players contributed seven points apiece — Penn State transfer Kebba Njie among them in his Irish debut. The sophomore big man, who played 15 minutes off the bench, missed the first four games due to an injured right hand.
Troy Hupstead posted 15 points and 11 rebounds to record his third double-double of the season for UMES (2-3). Devon Ellis added 13 points, but the Hawks shot just 34.4 percent from the floor.
Notre Dame entered the game shooting 22.3 percent from 3-point range — second worst among all power-conference schools — but the Irish were hot from the jump and finished 13 of 27 (48.1 percent) from long range. They drilled three consecutive 3-pointers — the first by J.R. Konieczny before a pair from Northwestern transfer Julian Roper II — to take an 11-7 lead.
Shrewsberry swished a 3-pointer and added a free throw at the 7:34 mark as Notre Dame extended its lead to 26-15. Shrewsberry flushed two more 3-pointers in the next two minutes to push the margin to 32-17 as he scored all 13 of his points in his first six minutes on the floor.
UMES endured another extended scoring drought late in the first half — this one lasting 4:47 — and Notre Dame carried a 38-22 lead into the break.
The Hawks couldn’t get back into the game during the second half. Hupstead canned a 3-pointer with 12:55 left to cut Notre Dame’s margin to 50-35, but Logan Imes answered with a 3-pointer on the next possession and Notre Dame went on to lead by as much as 72-44 before Micah Shrewsberry cleared the bench with 2:52 to go.
–Field Level Media
