Irish Tops Cardinal in Closing Seconds
Maxime RaynaudMaxime Raynaud
Josh Clements
Men's Basketball by Zach Reynolds

Irish Tops Cardinal in Closing Seconds

Stanford concludes the regular season on Saturday at Louisville

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame hit a game-winning 3-pointer with 18 seconds to play, topping the visiting Cardinal in the penultimate ACC contest, 56-54, at Purcell Pavilion. The Cardinal drops to 19-11 this season and 11-8 in the ACC.

Maxime Raynaud led the Cardinal with his nation-leading 22nd double-double of the season, finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds. His 18th 20-point outing of the campaign, Raynaud passed Keith Jones ’84 for 14th on Stanford’s all-time scoring list and he tied Rich Kelley ’75 for fourth place on the Cardinal’s all-time rebounds list.

Jaylen Blakes finishes with 13 points and a team-leading three assists, while Benny Gealer ended the night with 11 points, including a 3-for-4 tally from beyond the 3-point arc. Ryan Agarwal scored six points and collected a career-high 12 rebounds.

Stanford struggled from the floor at just 33.3 percent overall, but held the Irish (13-17, 7-12 ACC) to just 35.4 percent on the night. The Cardinal led at the half, 24-21, led by 10 points from Raynaud and nine from Gealer.

Blakes scored all 13 of his points in the second half, at one point helping Stanford to a nine-point lead with 8:51 to play, 46-37. Notre Dame responded with a 15-0 run to take a 52-46 lead with 3:28 to go, but Stanford showed its resilience with an 8-0 run of its own, punctuated by triples from Agarwal and Blakes. Notre Dame took the lead with a triple with 18 seconds to go, and Stanford’s shot at the buzzer rimmed out.

Stanford closes ACC regular season action on Saturday, March 8 at 11 a.m. PT at Louisville. The action will be broadcast on ESPNU.