Dane Goodwin scored 17 points as Notre Dame withstood a stiff challenge from Howard and held on for a 71-68 victory Monday afternoon in the MLK Classic in Washington.
Nate Laszewski collected 17 and 13 rebounds in Notre Dame’s first visit to a historically Black university. Blake Wesley added 13 for Notre Dame (11-6), which shot 52.1 percent and won for the seventh time in eight games.
The Fighting Irish fended off a tough challenge from the Bison (6-8) and withstood a pair of late comeback attempts.
The game was developed through a conversation by Fighting Irish coach Mike Brey and Bison coach Kenny Blakeney and originally scheduled to occur last season before Howard’s season ended in December 2020 due to COVID-19. Brey was an assistant coach for Duke when Blakeney played there. Blakeney later was an assistant under Brey at Delaware.
Howard alumnus Gus Johnson was originally slated to do play-by-play for FOX but missed the game due to health and safety protocol.
Steve Settle III led all scorers with 16 of his career-high 25 points in the second half as the Bison (6-8) shot 41.4 percent. Leading scorer Kyle Foster and Elijah Hawkins added 12 as Howard within one point twice in the final minute.
Notre Dame trailed 42-40 when Hawkins hit a nifty reverse layup with 14:05 remaining and began pulling away. The Fighting Irish got the lead for good when Goodwin hit a 3-pointer with 13:56 remaining and took their first double-digit lead at 56-46 on Goodwin’s dunk with 8:08 remaining.
Howard was within 58-54 on a 3-pointer by Settle with about six minutes left but Notre Dame took a 67-56 lead with 2:50 remaining on consecutive hoops by Wesley. The Bison ripped off 10 straight points to get within 67-66 on Tai Bibbs with 56 seconds left, and they were within 69-68 when Hawkins hit a reverse layup with 34 seconds to go.
After Hubbs hit a layup for a 71-68 lead with 12 seconds remaining, Hawkins missed a 3-point try at the buzzer.
–Field Level Media