Notre Dame Season Ends With Crushing Loss To North Carolina
It would seem Notre Dame used up all the juice it had left to rout #11 Florida State and come from behind to knock off Wake Forest in the first round of the ACC Tournament.
Notre Dame had nothing left in the tank on either end of the court as the North Carolina Tar Heels ended the Fighting Irish season with a punishing 101-59 victory in the second round of the conference tournament.
The Irish hung with North Carolina for the first portion of the opening half, trailing just 17-14 after Dane Goodwin knocked down a triple about eight minutes into the game.
North Carolina answered with an 8-0 run, and Notre Dame never got the game back to within single digits.
After trailing 50-36 at the half, Notre Dame hung around for bit in the second half, and the Irish got it to 59-47 at one point, although it never felt like Notre Dame had a run it could make. North Carolina went on a 15-0 run over a five minute period to blow the Irish out.
North Carolina dominated Notre Dame in every way possible. It out-rebounded the Irish 54-31, it forced 16 Irish turnovers, the Tar Heel bench outscored the Notre Dame bench 45-19, North Carolina held a 56-20 points in the paint advantage and the Tar Heels blocked 12 shots.
The Tar Heels forced Notre Dame to live on the perimeter, and the Irish couldn't answer, going 7-26 from behind the arc.
Guard Prentiss Hubb and forward Nate Laszewski had 13 points apiece to lead the Irish. Durham had 10 points, six boards and three blocks in what was likely the last came of his career. No other Irish players reached double figures.
North Carolina had five different players in double figures, led by Andrew Bacot, who scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. He was one of three Tar Heel players to have a double-double. The others were Walker Kessler (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Day'Ron Sharpe (10 points, 10 rebounds).
Notre Dame finishes the season with an 11-15 record. With the NIT set to go with a smaller bracket this season it is highly unlikely the Irish play in a postseason game, which means the 2020-21 season has drawn to a close.
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