Notre Dame and North Carolina State are both trying to shed a frustrating two-game skid, and one of them will reach a .500 record in Atlantic Coast Conference play after meeting Wednesday night in Raleigh, N.C.
“We got to go find a way to capitalize on the road,” Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry said. “We got to go get one. Let’s be tough. Let’s be resilient.”
Notre Dame (7-7, 1-2) is coming off a tough home loss to North Carolina on Saturday, one in which the Tar Heels stunned the Fighting Irish with a four-point play in the closing seconds to win 74-73.
Markus Burton led Notre Dame with 23 points in his return from a seven-game absence (knee) but missed the potential game-winning layup at the buzzer. The sophomore guard paces the Fighting Irish with 18.9 points, albeit in just seven games.
“He’s just a warrior,” Shrewsberry said of Burton. “… He put us in position to win. He’s going to be better. He’s going to keep growing.”
Notre Dame will visit an NC State squad coming off two road setbacks last week. The Wolfpack (8-6, 1-2) blew a 14-point lead in a 70-67 loss at Virginia on New Year’s Eve before getting clobbered 77-59 by Wake Forest on Saturday.
“We have to increase our stretches of how well we play during times,” NC State coach Kevin Keatts said. “We’ve had games where I thought we played 20 really good minutes of basketball, then 25. As we continue to go through the season, we got to get up to 30 to 35 to ultimately 37.”
Keatts said the Wolfpack still have the right attitude and he believes a breakthrough is imminent.
“We’ve just got to get back to being a little bit more stingy on the defensive end, and then our shots will fall offensively,” he said.
Dontrez Styles paired 11 points with 10 rebounds off the bench against Wake Forest. It marked his first double-double for NC State since transferring from Georgetown after last season.
“What we’re trying to get from him is for him to feel comfortable both on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively, and trying to fit him into what we’re trying to do,” Keatts said.
Styles scored 10 points for Georgetown in an overtime victory over Notre Dame last season. He ranks third on the Wolfpack with 9.6 points per game behind fellow guards Marcus Hill (12.6 ppg) and Jayden Taylor (12.1).
–Field Level Media
