Notre Dame and Cal have both locked up spots in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and now they look to build a little momentum as they close out the regular season on Saturday in South Bend, Ind.
The Fighting Irish (13-17, 7-12 ACC) are coming off a 56-54 win over Stanford on Wednesday that was sealed by a Cole Certa 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining.
Meanwhile, the Golden Bears (13-17, 6-13), also bound for the conference tournament, will try to rebound from an 85-68 road loss to No. 14 Louisville on Wednesday. It was the Bears’ eighth loss in their last 10 games.
Notre Dame is 3-7 in its last 10 and got a big boost earlier this week from an unlikely hero in Certa, a freshman guard who has played in 15 games and averages just 2.7 points per game.
That could be a big thing for the remainder of this season, especially with third-leading scorer Braeden Shrewsberry out for the rest of the season with an abdomen strain. Shrewsberry was averaging 14.0 points per game.
Markus Burton and Tae Davis continue to lead the way for the Irish, averaging 21.3 and 15.5 points, respectively.
As for Certa, Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry has a lot of confidence in him.
“He’s one of the most confident dudes I’ve ever been around,” Shrewsberry said after his team’s latest win. “He’s not scared of the moment. He’s not scared to be in situations at all. That’s an unbelievable attribute to have, especially as a shooter.”
For the Bears, they will need to get their top two scoring threats back on track after both Andrej Stojakovic (16.7 ppg) and Jeremiah Wilkinson (14.7) struggled in the loss to the Cardinals.
Stojakovic shot 2-of-11 and scored a season-low four points, missing all four of his attempts from long range. Wilkinson was 2-for-15 from the field and finished with 11 points, the first time in the last 12 games as a starter that he hasn’t scored at least 14.
Cal coach Mark Madsen is confident the struggles won’t carry into Saturday’s finale.
“Andrej wasn’t himself tonight from a shooting perspective, and Jeremiah wasn’t either,” Madsen said. “They’ll come back and shoot it better next game.”
–Field Level Media
