This time the Butler didn’t do it, and as a result Irish eyes are smiling and not because they are all still celebrating St. Patrick’s Day but because Notre Dame is on its way to the Sweet 16.
No. 3-seeded Notre Dame came from behind to beat No. 6 Butler, 67-64, in overtime Saturday night in an NCAA tournament Midwest Region third-round game before a crowd of 18,762 at Consol Energy Center.
The win means the Irish (31-5), who won the ACC tournament, advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003, and only the third time since 1982.
“What a magnificent college game,” said Notre Dame coach Mike Brey, whose mother Betty died Saturday morning of a heart attack at the age of 84. “I'm just so proud of our group. We've been in those situations many times where we're down in the second half but we dug ourselves out.
“Our defense helped us escape in timely, clutch, big offensive plays was also a key. [This] was kind of a tribute to [his mother], I think she was definitely with us down the stretch.”
Notre Dame will play the winner of a game today between No. 2 Kansas (27-8) and No. 7 Wichita State (29-4) Thursday night in the region semifinal in Cleveland.
The victory also continued a great start to the NCAA tournament by teams from the ACC as the conference is 9-0 in this first weekend with three teams — Virginia, Duke and Louisville — still to play today in their third-round game.
It wasn’t easy though, as the Bulldogs have developed a reputation as a giant killer in the NCAA tournament. Talented, tank-sized guard Roosevelt Jones gave them all they could handle and then some.
Jones had 23 points and five rebounds to lead all scorers and the Bulldogs also got 20 points from forward Andrew Chrabascz. But it wasn’t meant to be as the Irish made just a couple of more plays down the stretch of overtime to win.
“Obviously, this a tough one for us,” said Butler coach Chris Holtmann. “Really, a disappointing loss. I think we give Notre Dame a lot of credit. They are obviously hard to play against and I think we were able to do some things and we had the game where we wanted it.
“We just weren't able to make enough plays there late. I thought our guys really fought and I give Notre Dame a lot of credit for pulling this one out.”
Notre Dame led, 31-29, at halftime and opened the second half with a 6-2 run. It led, 37-31, with 16:22 to play in regulation after a nifty tip dunk by Pat Connaughton.
A dunk by Demetrius Jackson with 14:12 to play pushed the Irish lead back to 41-36, but that’s when Jones went to work and sparked the Bulldogs to their first second-half lead of the game.
The Bulldogs run was 9-0 and Jones had six of those points, including a floater in the lane with 9:35 to play. That gave Butler a 45-41 lead.
Jackson, though, wouldn’t let the Irish fade away and he hit a free throw and a 3-pointer to tie the score. That led to a 12-3 run and Notre Dame’s lead was 53-48 with 4:11 to play in regulation after a layup by Zach Auguste.
Butler didn’t flinch, though, and came right back and used a 7-2 run to tie the score at 55-55 with 1:33 to play in regulation on a layup by Jones.
Butler had two opportunities to take a lead but came up empty with missed shots. Steve Vasturia drove the lane but was stripped with 44 seconds to play in regulation and it was again Butler ball.
Jones drove the lane and missed a floating one-hander with six seconds to play in regulation and Auguste grabbed the rebound and tried to dribble up the court quickly. It was perhaps too quickly as he was guilty of a double-dribble and Butler took possession with two seconds to play.
The Bulldogs inbounded the ball to Kellen Dunham but Connaughton blocked his shot out of bounds and the game went into overtime with the score tied, 55-55.
Connaughton then made the first big shot of the overtime period with a 3-pointer from the corner with 3:08 to play and pushed the Irish lead to 62-59.
Dunham made two free throws with 1:57 to play and the Bulldogs were back to within 62-61, but with the shot clock running down Grant drove and found Vasturia — who led the Irish with 20 points — in the corner and he buried a 3-pointer Butler’s hopes went down with it.
“We did finally get great looks at crunch time,” said Brey. “The game was a lot like games we've been in. Dog fights. We're down. We've come out of timeouts in that -- the one time-out we were down, what were we down, seven? I said ‘fellas, we've done this before’.
“But they've been amazingly resilient.I don't think anybody in the country makes clutch shots better than our group. It's not just one guy. It's a number of different guys that have done it. And I just think we just, we kind of love that moment. And you don't find that much.”
Grant, who had 16 points and five assists, made a layup with 18 seconds to play to seal the win.
Butler also was hurt when it had to play the final 3:53 of overtime without starting point guard Alex Barlow, who fouled out trying to defend a jumper by Grant.
The pace of the game was slow early and both teams had to grind out possessions on offense. But the Irish started to make their shots and went on a 12-4 run and led, 22-12, with 7:47 to play in the half after a jump shot by V.J. Beachum.
Paul Zeise: pzeise@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1720 and Twitter @paulzeise.
First Published: March 22, 2015, 4:43 a.m.
Updated: March 22, 2015, 5:28 a.m.
