A pair of Atlantic Coast Conference teams looking to form rare winning streaks will meet Tuesday when Georgia Tech visits Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.
Notre Dame (9-10, 3-5 ACC) has won two of three games following a four-game losing streak. That skid began with an 86-75 loss at Georgia Tech on Dec. 31. The Fighting Irish haven’t won consecutive games since Dec. 7, 11 and 22, but they are fresh off their 74-59 road victory on Saturday at Virginia.
Notre Dame got 21 points from Markus Burton, who went 7 of 14 from the field and 4 of 6 on 3-point attempts. The Fighting Irish were 12 of 23 from long range, which coach Micah Shrewsberry found encouraging.
“We’re a really good 3-point shooting team,” Shrewsberry said. “We just need to shoot more of them. We need to find ways to get more attempts.”
Notre Dame shoots 37.6 percent from long range on the season, good for third in the ACC.
Burton leads the team with 19.9 points per game, followed by Tae Davis (16.4) and Braeden Shrewsberry (14.7).
Georgia Tech (9-11, 3-6) ended its season-worst four-game losing streak on Wednesday, beating visiting Virginia Tech 71-64. The Yellow Jackets had to play undermanned, a theme for most of the season.
Georgia Tech has been without Kowacie Reeves Jr. (9.3 points per game) since November and Luke O’Brien (6.4 ppg) since December. The latest blow has been the absence of leading scorer Lance Terry (15.8 ppg), who has missed two of the last three games with a hand injury and then the flu.
Nonetheless, head coach Damon Stoudamire has faith in any player he puts on the court.
“This has been a weird year, but for me it’s been a fun one,” Stoudamire said. “You’re just trying to get creative to manage games and stay in games. But if we’re in striking distance at the end, I think we can win with six, seven guys. I think we’ve got enough. I really do.”
Javian McCollum scores 13.1 points per game and Baye Ndongo averages 11.7 points and 7.5 rebounds.
The Yellow Jackets are trying for their third winning streak of the season. They took three in a row before their recent slide.
–Field Level Media
