CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – It all comes down to Saturday. First and foremost, for Notre Dame (13-17, 4-13), they must win at Boston College (10-20, 3-14). The Fighting Irish will tip off against the Eagles at Noon ET on ESPNU. Then, it’s a waiting game. The Irish will jet home and see what the cards have dealt them, for they need a Pitt loss as well. The Panthers, who hold the head-to-head tiebreaker, tip off at Syracuse at 4:30 p.m. on the CW. Either Notre Dame or Pittsburgh will claim the 15th and final spot of the ACC Tournament and will head to Charlotte for a Tuesday, March 10, affair with the No. 10 seed. Notre Dame and Boston College have already met once this season, back on Jan. 24. The Irish erased a 13-point deficit to record a 68-64 victory, marking their largest comeback of the 2025-26 campaign. The Blue & Gold outscored the Eagles 44-29 in the second half, shooting 50.0 percent from the field. Shrewsberry finished with a game-high 22 points, which still stands as his second-highest scoring output of the season. The junior was 8-17 from the field and 4-6 from the stripe. Shrewsberry hit the biggest shot of the night, draining a three with 1:26 remaining to push the Irish up five. Jalen Haralson recorded 11 of his 17 points in the second half and finished 8-13 overall on the night. Carson Towt reeled in 13 boards, seven offensive, to go along with his six points and two assists. The win gave Notre Dame its third straight in the series against Boston College, a series they now lead 30-17. One of Boston College’s three ACC wins came against Pitt, which means if they were to win on Saturday, coupled with a Pitt loss, they would own the tiebreakers in that 3-team tie (BC, Pitt, ND) and advance to Charlotte. OFFENSE TRENDING The Notre Dame offense has found its footing behind the hot hands of Cole Certa and Jalen Haralson. Over the last 5 games, Cole has averaged a team-best 23.2 ppg on 42.5% shooting. Jalen has played in two games since returning from injury and has balled out in both, totaling 44 points on a combined 11-21 from the field & 22-25 from the free-throw line. Braeden Shrewsberry is riding back-to-back double-figure scoring games, totaling 30 points on 10-22 shooting, 6-13 from three. Also, how about Logan Imes. The junior has reached double figures in 3 of the last 5 games. He is averaging the 4th most points on the team in that 5-game span at 9.4 ppg, shooting 46.2% from the field and 8-19 (42.1%) from three. As a result of everything mentioned above, the Notre Dame offense is averaging 77.4 ppg on 44.4% shooting. CERTA-FIED Cole Certa has been one of the best basketball players in the ACC down the final stretch and we’ll let the stats speak for themselves. Cole had the 4th-highest scoring average amongst ACC players in February: Ebuka Okorie – 25.6 Juke Harris – 22.9 Mikel Brown Jr – 21.1 Cole Certa – 21.0 Cameron Boozer – 20.0 Cole drained 30 total threes in February, which were the most of any ACC player. In fact, his 4.3 threes/game in February ranked 2nd amongst Power Conference players. That number trailed only Texas Tech’s Donovan Atwell’s 4.6. In addition, the Illinois native has produced three 30+ point games since Jan. 27. His three 30-burgers in ACC play trail only Ebuka Okorie’s 4. In fact, Cole owns the 3rd and 5th highest scoring performances in league play with his 37 and 34 points. Lastly, Cole is riding a career best 8 game double-digit scoring streak heading into Saturday’s game. He’s totaled a whopping 164 points (20.5 ppg), shooting 40.5% from the field, 33-83 from three (40.5%), in that span. 30-BURGERS Now let’s take a closer look at those 30+ point performances. On Feb. 14 vs. Georgia Tech, Cole went off for a career high 37 points in the 89-74 win over Georgia Tech. The 37 points tied Matt Farrell for the second most in an ACC game (most in regulation), trailing only Markus Burton’s 43 points in 2OT game against Cal a season ago. Cole drained a career-best seven threes, finishing 7-11. He was 12-20 from the field overall. Certa dropped 21 points in the first half, marking the first time an Irish player has done so since Markus Burton’s 22 at Syracuse on Jan. 18, 2025. Certa also went off for 34 points against No. 17 Virginia, shooting 10-19 from the floor, 5-13 from three and 9-11 from the free-throw line. Certa’s 34 points were the most by a Notre Dame player against an AP-ranked team since Nov. 26, 2008, when Kyle McAlarney scored 39 in a loss to No. 1 UNC. And most recently, Cole lifted the Irish to a 96-90 overtime victory over NC State, recording 32 points. He went 3-3 from beyond the arc in OT and ultimately drained 6-10 from three in the game. JALEN SURGING Jalen has really come into his own down the final stretch. The freshman phenom has produced four 20-point games over his last 7 games played: 20 vs. Virginia, career high 26 at Syracuse, 23 at SMU, then 25 vs. NC State. After missing three games due to an ankle injury, Haralson’s return resulted in one of the program’s best wins in the Coach Shrewsberry era – a 96-90 OT win over NC State. In the 2nd half alone, Haralson scored 20 points on 7-9 shooting, 6-6 from the stripe. He recorded 14 of the team’s final 20 points. He ultimately finished the game with 25 points, one shy of his career best. SHREWSBERRY LEADING FROM THREE Braeden Shrewsberry continues to prove he’s one of the best from deep, ranking 4th in the ACC in three-point shooting percentage at 40.4%. That number also ranks 39th in the country. He’s converting 2.8 made threes per game, which ranks 3rd in the league. Shrewsberry’s sweet spot? The corner three – where he’s draining 46.2%, which is 10.3% above the Division I average. His best performance from beyond the arc came against Evansville when Shrewsberry scored a career-high 26 points behind a career-high 8 three pointers, shooting 80% from three (8-10). His 8 made triples tied for the 7th most in a game all-time in program history. Braeden has drained a career-best 84 made threes on the year. For comparison, he recorded 78 as a freshman and 72 in a shortened sophomore campaign. BRAEDEN CAREER ACCOLADES Speaking of Shrewsberry making it rain, the junior enters Wednesday’s matchup with 234 career made threes. He is now 4 away from moving into the program’s top-10, surpassing Prentiss Hub’s 237. A milestone already achieved – Braeden reached 1,000 career points at SMU on Feb. 10, doing so in 84 games. He became the 69th Notre Dame player all-time to reach the milestone. That number ties Louisville for 3rd most all-time behind Duke (70) & UNC (81). TOWT’S REBOUNDING STATS Towt’s current rebounding rankings: 9.1 rpg ranks 33rd nationally, 4th in the ACC 3.6 offensive rpg – 1st in ACC/17th in country 5.5 defensive rpg – 6th in ACC 1,351 career rebounds – leads all active players His 1,351 career rebounds have pushed him into the top-100 all-time list at #54. 17 more rebounds would put him in the top-50, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. KOEHLER EARNS STARTING ROLE Freshman Brady Koehler produced a career high 17 points at Virginia Tech, pouring in 15 in the 2nd half. Overall, he was 5-7 from the field, plus 2-3 from three & 5-6 from the stripe. Since that performance, Koehler has started in 11 straight. Fast forward to Virginia on Jan. 27 and the freshman impressed in that contest. Koehler was all over the stat sheet, recording his first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds (career high). He got it done from the free-throw line where he was a personal best 9-10. He also tied his career high of 4 blocks and set a new high for steals with 3. Against #1 Duke, Koehler scored the team’s first 9 points of the game, before finishing with 14 on 5-9 shooting. Versus Stanford, Koehler scored 8 of the team’s first 9 points and finished with 10. He now averages 7.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, in ACC play on 49.4% shooting, 14-34 (41.2%) from three. NOTRE NOTABLES The Irish are 9 wins away from 2,000 all-time. They would become the eighth program to achieve this feat. Certa is averaging a team-best 16.6 ppg against ranked opposition. Brady Koehler has been excellent in the midrange, where he’s shooting 55.0%. Logan Imes has converted multiple threes in back-to-back games. Cole is 89-98 from the free-throw line. His 90.8% leads all ACC players and would rank 2nd for a season at ND. Steve Vasturia holds the top spot at 91.0%. Jalen leads the team in FT attempts (6.5) and makes (4.4). Since Virginia on Jan. 27, Jalen has raised his FT% from 60.7% to 67.6%. Garrett Sundra is 10 for his last 12 from two-point range. Sir Mohammed thrives in the paint, where he’s shooting 50.0%. NET is at 92 — 2-11 in Quad 1 // 2-5 in Quad 2// 1-0 in Quad 3 / 8-1 in Quad 4. KenPom is at 87 — ORtg ranked 74 at 116.4 — DRtg ranked 125 at 107.1. About The Author troyderengowski61@gmail.com See author's posts Post navigation #15 PURDUE HOSTS WISCONSIN ON SENIOR DAY BUTLER HEADS TO CHICAGO FOR SATURDAY’S REGULAR SEASON FINALE WITH DEPAUL
