Freshman Cole Certa hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining in regulation to lift Notre Dame over Stanford 56-54 in Wednesday night’s ACC contest in South Bend, Ind.
Markus Burton scored 17 of his 24 points in the second half for the Fighting Irish (13-17, 7-12 ACC), who locked up a spot in next week’s conference tournament.
Certa, who began the night averaging 2.4 points, finished with six points after also hitting a trey near the end of the first half. Burton entered the game as the conference’s leading scorer at 21.1 points.
A basket by Burton basket got the Irish within 36-35, but a jumper by Maxime Raynaud and Benny Gealer’s breakaway layup off a Notre Dame turnover started a 10-2 surge for Stanford. Jaylen Blakes (13 points) scored four points during the run, which put the Cardinal ahead 46-37 with 8:51 remaining.
Notre Dame then answered with 15 straight points while Stanford went 5 1/2 minutes without a basket. Burton scored seven points during that burst, and his bucket to end it put the Fighting Irish up 52-46 with a little more than three minutes left.
Stanford, though, used an 8-0 run, highlighted by 3-pointers from Ryan Agarwal and Blakes to lead 54-52 with 1:18 remaining. Notre Dame’s Tae Davis made one of two free throws with 59.1 seconds to make it a one-point contest.
In the first half, Stanford shot 23.3 percent, went 4-of-17 from 3-point range and went about 6 1/2 minutes without a point during one stretch. However, when Gealer ended the drought with a 3-pointer, it was a 10-10 contest.
That’s because Notre Dame shot 25 percent in the half and went 6-of-12 from the free-throw line. The Cardinal used a 10-0 run, featuring two more treys from Gealer and four points from Raynaud, to lead 22-16, and still led by three at the break.
Raynaud finished with 20 points with 10 rebounds, and Gealer scored 11 for the Cardinal (19-11, 11-8), who had won three straight. They shot 33.3 percent overall while falling to 2-7 in ACC road games. Notre Dame shot 35.4 percent for the night.
–Field Level Media
