Irish men’s hoops suffers first loss of season against Western Carolina

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (WNDU) - The Notre Dame men’s basketball team suffered its first loss of the season on Saturday against Western Carolina.

Much like game one of the Micah Shrewsberry era against Niagara, the Fighting Irish found themselves down by double digits in the first half and rallied late in the second half.

However, this rally came up short, as the Irish fell to the Catamounts 71-61.

Freshman Carey Booth led Notre Dame with 20 points in 24 minutes off the bench. Fellow freshman Markus Burton scored 17 points and Julian Roper II had 12 points and eight rebounds.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been a low-energy group,” Shrewsberry said after the game. “Whether that’s in practice, film sessions, you know — that’s kind of what we’ve been. We’ve got to find some way to do it. Put that on us as coaches to get them better ready right from the jump, but we’ve got to fix that part of it, or I’ve got to start a different way.

“I’ve got to play some different dudes,” he continued. “I’m not against that. If guys aren’t getting the job done, they’re not going to play. But we’ve got to find some guys who are going to get the job done. Right now, we don’t have enough guys doing it, but we’ll get them there. We know it.”

The Fighting Irish are traveling to New York next week to compete in the Legends Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Notre Dame will face Auburn on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 9 p.m. EST. They’ll face either Oklahoma State or St. Bonaventure the next day depending on results.

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