Boston College 77, Notre Dame 69: Not with a bang, but with a whimper
· Yahoo Sports
The Irish found themselves with a do-or-die game this afternoon against one of the two worst teams in the conference to keep their ACC tournament hopes alive. Boston College is woeful, and it would not have been surprising at all for the Irish to pull this off, even on BC’s Senior Day. However, absolutely nobody should be shocked by the fact that this one went by the wayside as so many before it have this season. Defensive leaks, stretches of dry offense, turnovers, and a lack of fortitude in late-game situations have plagued the Irish all year, and today was no exception.
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The beginning of this game was extremely ugly, as there were four turnovers before anyone scored a point. A big reason why was that Carson Towt got the ball in great position under the hoop three times and could do nothing useful with it. I’ll miss him when he’s no longer here, but I won’t miss watching that. On the other end, Boston College couldn’t get anything working in the half-court, but they were successful getting out in transition a couple times for dunks. The refs were allowing a lot of physical play on both ends, and consequently defense was winning out. The Eagles are not known for offense, but the Irish managed to induce seven turnovers in the game’s first twelve minutes.
Notre Dame wasn’t particularly careful with the ball either, and generally were finding tough sledding on the offensive end. Boston College shifted to a full court press about ten minutes in and were very aggressive pressuring ball handlers. Braeden Shrewsberry swished a couple open threes and Sir Mohammed got one to bounce around the rim and in, but generally the Irish shot it poorly over the early going.
Boden Kapke made a three for Boston College at the 9:00 mark, and shockingly, that was their last field goal of the half because they missed their next 12 shots. That allowed the Irish to build a lead on the strength of threes from Brady Koehler, Shrewsberry, and Logan Imes. Making matters worse for BC, the Shrewsberry three came on a play when Eagles star Donald Hand pulled up lame with a lower-body injury at mid-court. You’d think that all of this would portend a strong Irish advantage by halftime, but the Eagles were able to claw their way back in it from the free throw line; they’d make 11 free throws after the aforementioned Kapke three, and the Irish went to the locker room only up 33-30.
The BC field goal drought would top out at 11 minutes and 16 misses when Kapke put in a post bucket over Towt two minutes into the second half. Cole Certa, who had been pretty quiet to this point, responded with a trademark three from the logo and Jalen Haralson got into a bit of a groove, scoring off a rebound, on a drive to the rim, and at the free throw line. BC’s offense was looking abysmal without Hand, and the Irish were able to restore their largest lead of the game at 41-32.
Of course, since this is the 2025-26 Notre Dame team, disaster was just around the corner. Fred Payne dropped a three pointer behind a strong Kapke screen, and Luka Toews got the lead down to five with a pull-up jumper. Towt got ripped going to the hoop by Chase Forte on the next Irish possession, and Shrewsberry had his pass deflected when getting double-teamed off a screen. Both of those errors led to fast-break points for Boston College, and the game was now knotted at 41.
Notre Dame would get some momentum back on the strength of their defense and some uncharacteristically strong rim-protecting from Garrett Sundra and Koehler. However, BC’s three-point shooting picked up to help withstand the next Irish run, and the game found itself tied at 50 yet again. The Eagles would take their first lead since midway through the first half on a three from Payne, and they’d stretch the lead to six after a couple more productive possessions intermixed with Irish offensive ineptitude. After another Haralson miss, the Irish inexplicably left Aidan Shaw wide open under the hoop with just a second left on the shot clock. Suddenly, the Irish were chasing eight points with five-and-a-half minutes to play.
With their backs against the wall, the Notre Dame offense suddenly came to life. Shrewsberry would quickly grab three points back with a tough step-back triple, and Imes would drop a deep one a couple possessions later. Jalen Haralson would go hard to the hoop a couple times and convert on back-to-back three-point plays. However, the Irish suddenly found themselves unable to stop the Eagles on the other end. Boston College would live at the free throw line the rest of the game, and the Irish were never able to cut the deficit below four. The nail in the coffin came with just under a minute left and the Irish down by six. Sir Mohammed caught the ball wide open for three and missed it. It’s unclear why he was on the floor to play offense after a dead ball.
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With the Irish officially eliminated from postseason play, this concludes our coverage of the 2025-26 men’s basketball season. While the games themselves have not been a lot of fun, it’s been a pleasure to bring these recaps to you. Thanks again for bearing with me during my mid-season hiatus. Hopefully this thing will turn around sometime soon and we’ll return to the days of having excitement in March. In the meantime, enjoy the tournaments. There’s no better time of year.
Bullet Points:
- Donald Hand went to the free throw line late in the first half and stayed there for nearly two minutes. He has a weird hitch in his free throw which fooled Brady Koehler into a lane violation on the front end of a 1-and-1, which would have been a miss. Then, Boden Kapke tried to hop off the lane as the ball was being delivered back to Hand, calling another stoppage. Then Koehler fell for the hitch again and committed a second lane violation. Hand would have missed that one too. Instead, he got the ball back and went 2-of-2 from the line.
- Brady Koehler got banged up on a defensive stop in the second half. He was barely able to run, and the officials let the teams play on for awhile before Micah Shrewsberry was able to successfully plead his case and stop the game.
- Koehler led all rebounders with 11 and chipped in a couple blocks and steals, but it was otherwise a rough game for him, as he was just 3-for-13 from the field and 2-for-7 from three.
- Towt fouled out with two points and just six rebounds, with three turnovers against one assist. His play got really bad late in the season.
- BC was 31-for-41 from the free throw line, meaning they made 10 more than the Irish attempted (14-for-21). That was more or less the difference in the game.
- Brad Stevens was on hand to watch the game behind the Notre Dame bench, taking advantage of the local game.