Notre Dame downs Louisville for 3rd straight win

Field Level Media|published: Wed 21st February, 21:17 2024

Feb 21, 2024; Louisville, Kentucky, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish guard Markus Burton (3) scrambles for a loose ball with Louisville Cardinals forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield (5) during the first half at KFC Yum! Center. credits: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports

Braeden Shrewsberry hit a career-high seven 3-pointers and finished with 23 points as visiting Notre Dame won a season-high third straight game, beating Louisville 72-50 on Wednesday.

Fellow freshman Markus Burton scored 16 for the Fighting Irish (10-16, 5-10 Atlantic Coast Conference), who went 12-for-27 (44.4 percent) from beyond the arc after entering the game at 29.8 percent from long distance.

Shrewsberry started hot from deep, overcame a shooting lull with the rest of his team, then heated up again in the second half to finish 7-for-11 from beyond the arc. Notre Dame never trailed en route to its first three-game ACC winning streak since February 2022.

Skyy Clark had 18 points and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield scored 16 for Louisville (8-19, 3-13), which has dropped three straight. The Cardinals shot 33.9 percent, went 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) from 3-point range and saw just six players make a field goal.

The Irish led 31-25 at halftime, but Huntley-Hatfield scored the first basket of the second half to give Louisville some momentum. However, Shrewsberry soon sank his fourth 3-pointer, from just left of the top of the arc, to give Notre Dame some breathing room.

Notre Dame built the lead to 14, but a 6-0 run, highlighted by a Clark 3-pointer, got the Cardinals within 53-45 with 7:52 remaining in regulation. That's when Shrewsberry stepped up again, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers to push the Irish's back up to 14 with a little more than 7:17 remaining.

Notre Dame made nine of its first 16 overall shots and started 5-for-7 from 3-point range when Shrewsberry's third of the night from distance capped a 9-0 run — and a 15-2 spurt — to put the visitors ahead 27-14. However, the Irish went just 2-for-15 the rest of the half and did not hit another trey before the break.

Louisville, meanwhile, scored 11 of 13 points during one stretch to get within 29-25 near the end of the first half before Burton's bucket gave Notre Dame that six-point lead entering halftime.

—Field Level Media

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