PITTSBURGH — Notre Dame’s NCAA Tournament futility under coach Mike Brey was staring it in the face. These were nervous times for the Irish.
Across the floor from No. 3 seed Notre Dame was a fearless, tough-minded Northeastern team making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1991 and only the eighth in school history. Northeastern’s last win in the NCAAs came 31 years ago in the preliminary round against Long Island University.
And the way the No. 14 seeded Huskies played, it looked for awhile as if they would not leave the building without ending that 31-year drought.
In the end, Notre Dame survived, winning a stressful 69-65 squeaker in the Midwest Regional second round Thursday at the Consol Energy Center.
While Brey waited before conducting his post-game interview, he was informed No. 14 seed UAB had upset No. 3 seed Iowa State in a game played simultaneously.
“They took the bullet, not us,’’ Brey said of Iowa State, the team that upset his Irish in 2013, the last time they were in the NCAAs. “I’m glad that this 3 [seed] escaped and we’ll go back and get some rest and we’re thrilled to be playing here on Saturday.’’
Notre Dame (30-5) has not been to the Sweet 16 since 2003, a constant bone of contention for Brey detractors in South Bend. The Irish will play Butler on Saturday with a Sweet 16 berth in the balance.
“We beat a really good team … a really good team,’’ Brey said. “That’s a great win for us. I told them in the locker room, ‘We weren’t going to beat them by 15, so don’t anybody walk out of here feeling we should have won by 15. It was going to be a dog fight.’ ’’
Northeastern outrebounded Notre Dame 33-17 in the game (21-7 in the second half) and 13-2 on the offensive glass. The difference for Notre Dame was twofold: Its ability to cause Northeastern turnovers (16) with nine steals, and Zach Auguste, a native of Marlborough, Mass., who led all scorers with 25 points in 27 minutes.
Northeastern ended up one possession — and perhaps one timeout — short of either tying the game at the end of regulation and sending it to overtime or winning it.
The play of the game turned out to be Jerian Grants strip steal of Northeastern’s Quincy Ford with 1.9 seconds remaining and the Irish clinging to a 67-65 lead.
Minutes earlier, Notre Dame had looked in complete control of the game, leading 65-55 with 4:49 remaining.
But Northeastern would not go away, rallying with a 10-2 run to cut the Irish lead to 67-65 with 32.5 seconds remaining on a Scott Eatherton (18 points) stick-back of a missed 3-pointer by David Walker (15 points).
Northeastern coach Bill Coen called his final timeout after the basket by Eatherton, and that might have cost the Huskies moments later on their final possession. Notre Dame guard Demetrius Jackson was unable to handle a long Pat Connaughton inbounds pass, turning the ball over to the Huskies with 24 seconds remaining, down only two points.
But Northeastern looked tight and disorganized on that fateful final possession and eventually Grant stripped the ball from Ford. The ball fittingly ended up in the hands of Auguste, the star of the game.
“Sure, I think we’re always better coming out of a timeout,’’ Coen said. “This team is a team that’s always executed very well in timeout situations. I wish we had one left, but we really had to kind of set our defense to give us that opportunity to be in that spot.’’
Eatherton said: “It would have helped if we would have had one more timeout. I’m not really sure what happened at the very end, but I don’t think that that last play is what lost us the game.’’
Still, the underdog Huskies (23-12) will forever wonder how — or whether — it might have done things differently with one more timeout to set its offense.
“I thought our team competed buzzer to buzzer,’’ Coen said. “They never stopped believing in themselves. They never gave in.’’