Markus Burton scored 24 points and Cole Certa added 22 off the bench to lead Notre Dame over Long Island 89-67 in the season opener for both teams Monday night in South Bend, Ind.
Ryder Frost shot 4-for-5 from 3-point distance and scored 15 points off the bench and Carson Towt had two points, but grabbed 19 rebounds for Notre Dame.
Jamal Fuller and Mason Porter-Brown scored 12 points each and Greg Gordon finished with 11 points for Long Island.
Notre Dame shot just 36.7% from the floor in the first half, but held the Sharks to 21.4% shooting while building a 40-25 lead.
Long Island couldn’t get any closer than 15 until Isaiah Miranda’s dunk cut the deficit to 70-57 with 6:06 left.
The Fighting Irish outscored the Sharks 10-2 over the final 3:12.
Notre Dame never trailed, grabbing an early double-digit lead after Garrett Sundra sank a 3-pointer to cap a 9-0 run and give the Fighting Irish a 13-2 advantage 3:51 into the game.
Kebba Njie made a jumper to extend the lead to 25-7 with 12:14 left in the first half. Notre Dame then hit its first scoring rut, going without a point for the next 3:16 before Burton sank a 3 from the wing to make it 28-10 with 8:58 left in the half.
Fuller sank 3s off assists from Gordon on back-to-back possessions to cut the lead to 30-18 with 7:02 left in the half.
The Sharks briefly managed to get the deficit back to single digits when Gordon scored off a lob from Jomo Goings to make it 32-23 with 3:23 remaining, but the Fighting Irish outscored Long Island 8-2 the rest of the half, highlighted by a baseline 3 from Certa, who shot 6-for-9 from 3-point range.
Burton made a 3 to extend the lead to 50-29 with 16:22 left in the game.
Frost hit three 3s later in the half to help extend the lead to 67-46.
Malachi Davis, who averaged 17.7 points and 3.2 assists for Long Island last season, shot 2-for-8 and scored five points before fouling out with 12:46 left.
–Field Level Media
