Notre Dame is one of the best shooting teams in the country and it showed on Friday night in the ACC semifinal game against Florida State, the Irish came out on top 77-73.
No. 22 Notre Dame (25-8, 12-6) was led offensively by Steve Vasturia and Bonzie Colson who each racked up 18 points in New York.
While the game was close at the end, Notre Dame was unstopable from behind the arc, shooting 13-27 from deep, good for 48 percent on the night. Florida State shot just 5-15 from three, good for just 33 percent.
The key to shutting down Florida State, is controlling future lottery pick Jonathan Isaac, Notre Dame held the highly touted freshmen to just five points in 35 minutes.
Florida State was able to outrebound the Irish 41-23, but the ‘Noles coughed it up nine more times.
A 16 point advantage at the break would have Notre Dame fans breathing easy, but the Seminoles fought back in the second half outscoring the Fighting Irish 47-35 in the final half of action. But Notre Dame’s high powered offense is too much to handle when the Irish shooters are hitting from deep.
Notre Dame has eliminated Duke from the tournament the last two seasons, the Irish will have a chnace to do it for a third year tomorrow and win the ACC title game.
Duke came out on top in the two teams previous meeting, 84-74. Grayson Allen led the Blue Devils with 21 points, and shot 51 percent from the field. The Irish shooters were cold from deep, Notre Dame shot just 33 percent in the one meeting the two teams have had.
“We’re going to have to score,” Brey said. “You’re not stopping them. They’re a gifted offensive team. We’ve got to put numbers on the board. We’ve got to score more than 77 to win (that game). Hopefully, we can slow them up a little bit, but we’re going to have to be really efficient offensively.”
Tip is slated for 9 P.M. on ESPN.
