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Had Princeton’s sophomore guard made the go-ahead 3-pointer with time expiring in Thursday’s first-round NCAA Tournament tilt with No. 5 seed Notre Dame, the Mishawaka Marian graduate would have been forever remembered as the local kid that sent the local team packing on the first day. While this shot missed, Pete Miller cut through the defense and tipped it in, bringing the game to within one.

One day after its 60-58 victory over Princeton, Notre Dame is back to business. And as for today, the seniors went out with a bang, and gave us one heck of a final ride.

“This nucleus of guys just feel like, as this thing was getting close, well, that’s what we did all past year”, Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said.

Pfleuger returned to the bench after getting the stitches and having a concussion ruled out.

“I think just finding a rhythm early”, Beachem said. He wore a scowl as he almost left the floor through the wrong exit after Cannady’s miss.

With the win the Irish advance to the second round of the tournament where they will face the victor of the West Virginia-Bucknell game later this afternoon. He came up big twice: on a short basket to make it 57-54 with 2:08 left, and with two free throws to make it 59-54 with 1:10 left. Spencer Weisz led Princeton with 15 points.

It’s the third time in the last six games that the Irish have finished under 67 percent from the foul line.

“Right now, it hurts a little bit”, Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson told CBS3’s Lesley Van Arsdall. Matt Farrell said he hasn’t been this emotional since high school and the locker room was dead silent.

Notre Dame will need its leaders to step up against West Virginia’s vaunted press defense, and Vasturia said he believes both he and Beachem are capable of doing just that. Steven Cook added 11 and Myles Stephens chipped in with 10.

The Irish, who started the season for the first time ever No. 1, were dominated at home by top-ranked CT 72-61 in early December, were beaten at North Carolina State 70-62 in the Atlantic Coast Conference opener later that month and lost 71-69 at Tennessee in mid-January.

Power forward Bonzie Colson (.790 for the year) made six of 10. They pick n roll, it’s just like playing us, and they’re a good free throw-shooting team, good three point shooting team.

No 12 M. TENNESSEE 81, No. 5 MINN. “And it’s very similar to two years ago, the Northeastern game, you know?”

Somehow, the even sharper-shooting (on most nights) Tigers hung around despite going just 8-of-31 from distance.

1 Player in NCAA women’s basketball history known of – Allen – to start all 145 straight games (and counting) played in her career while not missing any.

Coach Kermit Davis’ club will move on to face No. 4 seed Butler in the second round on Saturday.

The 2017 NCAA Tournament is officially under way, and there wasn’t much in the way of madness with the first round halfway in the books. He twice split free throws, and missed a pair in the second half after bumping knees with a Princeton defender and falling hard to the floor.

The Irish advanced again Thursday in the opener of this tournament, enduring a 60-58 scrap against 12th-seeded Princeton, their seventh NCAA tournament victory since 2015. The Tigers, who trailed by 11 early in the second half, had an open three-pointer to tie it up with just under 20 seconds to go.

The rest of the first half was a back-and-forth affair as the Tigers tried to claw their way back into the game only to see Notre Dame pull away. Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson had a game-high 18 points and seven rebounds, while teammate Matt Farrell put up 16 points.

Fifth-seeded Virginia rallied from 15 points down to beat 13th-seeded UNC Wilmington 76-71.