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Irish Survive

Advance When Princeton’s Last-Second Trey Doesn’t Fall

Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson puts up a jump shot during Thursday’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament first-round game against Princeton at KeyBank Center. AP photo

BUFFALO — Devin Cannady had the shot he wanted Thursday afternoon.

“I got my feet set,” the Princeton guard said, “I looked at the rim and when the ball left my hand I thought it was good.”

Cannady’s high-arching 3-pointer from the left wing seemed to hang in the air forever as the capacity crowd at KeyBank Center waited in anticipation for the NCAA’s annual basketball madness to begin in the very first tournament game.

“It was a great look for us,” Tigers coach Mitch Henderson said.

But just as the Ivy League champions were primed for an opener to remember, the ball bounced off the rim, Notre Dame’s Steve Vasturia rebounded the miss with less than a second remaining and the Fighting Irish and Coach Mike Brey could breathe a sigh of relief by escaping with a 60-58 victory.

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey and the rest of the Fighting Irish sweat out the closing moments of Thursday’s NCAA basketball tournament first-round game against Princeton. AP photo

The No. 5 seed had survived a white-knuckler against a No. 12.

“Gave everyone a show,” Brey said.

Forward Bonzie Colson scored 18 points, and guards Matt Farrell and Vasturia added 16 and 10 respectively to help send Notre Dame (26-9) into the second round on Saturday against No. 4 West Virginia, which knocked off No. 13 Bucknell, 86-80.

Meanwhile, Princeton (23-7), which was riding a 19-game winning streak, was led by Spencer Weisz with 15 points. Steven Cook added 11 and Myles Stephens chipped in with 10.

“Right now, this one hurts,” Henderson said.

That’s because the game had the potential to be one of those classic upsets that make the tournament so compelling every year.

Trailing by 11 points with just under 14 minutes remaining, the Tigers stayed poised despite struggling from the arc where they finished just 8-of-31. And when Weisz scored on a driving layup with 4:41 left, Princeton had cut the lead to 53-51.

“I thought we settled in,” Henderson said. “We didn’t play a great game offensively, but I thought we really gave ourselves a chance to win the game on the defensive end during that run.”

Added Weisz: “We kind of adjusted and we asked ourselves, ‘What do we want to make of this game?’ We came out, clawed back, and it all started on the defensive end for us.”

Vasturia connected on a pair of free throws to push Notre Dame’s lead back to four points, but then Cook drained a trey from the corner, bringing the Tigers, to within 55-54 with just over three minutes left.

Was Notre Dame nervous?

To the contrary.

In fact, an argument could be made that the Fighting Irish had Princeton right where they wanted it.

“We’ve had an unbelievable run in close games,” Brey said. “I think we’re 18-3 in our last 21 overtime games. That shouldn’t happen. (It’s) the law of averages, but we’ve been in so many of them, we really believe … well, that’s what we did last year. We just stole wins to get to the Elite Eight (in 2016).”

Having Colson, who injured his ankle in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game loss to Duke on Saturday, in the low block helped immensely, too.

The ACC first-team selection followed Cook’s trey with a bucket and a pair of free throws, which extended Notre Dame’s lead to 59-54 with 1:10 left.

”He’s a warrior,” Brey said of Colson. “He played through some soreness.”

But Princeton wasn’t done.

Pete Miller scored on a layup off a feed from Weisz less than 20 seconds later and when Farrell missed a foul-line jumper with 20.4 seconds remaining, Miller converted a tip-in, drawing the Tigers to within, 59-58, with 14 seconds left.

Following a Notre Dame timeout, Farrell was fouled, but he missed the front end of the 1-and-1 with 10.6 seconds remaining. Weisz grabbed the rebound and passed the ball to Amir Bell, who, in turn, dribbled into the front court and dished it off to Cannady who left fly with a jumper that was contested by Farrell.

“I thought the shot was going in,” Cannady said.

Instead, Vasturia grabbed the rebound, was fouled with 0.4 seconds remaining and hit one of two free throws, allowing the Fighting Irish to stick around for the weekend.

”I’m thrilled about our defense to keep them under 40 percent and really guard the arc,” Brey said. “That’s how we were going to escape and we did escape. … I’m really proud that we’re still alive.”

For the Tigers, the season was a special one, although it didn’t end like they’d hoped.

“It hurts for us right now, certainly, and, you know, you want to go out with a win and a deep tournament run, but nonetheless we gave it our all,” Weisz said. “I’m proud of our guys. It’s been an unbelievable year. It’s been an unbelievable four years, and we couldn’t have asked for anything more.”

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