NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Another big non-conference opportunity awaits Doug Davenport's squad Wednesday in northern Indiana as Bellarmine takes on Notre Dame. Tipoff inside Purcell Pavilion is set for 7 p.m. ET on ACC Network Extra.
 
Bellarmine (1-3) will be taking on their third Power-5 opponent of their first five games.
 
About Notre Dame
Notre Dame (3-1) started the season with three consecutive blowout wins at home over Long Island, Detroit Mercy and Eastern Illinois before dropping a heartbreaker at Ohio State on Sunday. Notre Dame led the now 4-0 Buckeyes by as many as 11 and retook the lead with two minutes remaining on a Braeden Shrewsberry jumper. Markus Burton, however, missed the Irish's last three shots down the stretch and the Buckeyes' Christoph Tilly sank a layup with 13 seconds remaining to hand Notre Dame their first loss, 64-63.
 
The average KenPom ranking of the Irish's three wins as of Tuesday is 290, while Ohio State sits at No. 36.
 
Through four games, the Irish offense has shot well, ranking 74th nationally with their .494 field goal percentage and 58th nationally with an effective field goal percentage of .579. They excelled at hitting the three before Sunday's 3-of-10 performance, but still rank 27th in Division I at .412. Notre Dame also rebounds well, ranking 37th with a +12.3 margin, and allows opponents to shoot just .394, 97th nationally.
 
Burton, a sophomore guard, ranks 11th in the ACC with his 18.0 points per game, though most of his damage is done inside the arc. Shrewsberry, a junior guard and son of third-year head coach Micah Shrewsberry, has lit it up from the outside, connecting on 13 of 21 treys (.619), tied for 13th nationally and tied for 3rd in the ACC. The biggest contributor to the Irish's hefty rebound margin is senior forward Carson Towt. The 6-foot-8 Northern Arizona transfer in his fifth college season averages 13.0 boards per game and has corralled 31.5 percent of all Irish rebounds.
 
Versus Notre Dame
Bellarmine is 0-3 all-time against the Irish. The first two meetings happened at Notre Dame during the 1958-59 and 1961-62 seasons. The Knights most recently traveled to Purcell Pavilion on December 23, 2020 while playing in just their fourth game as a Division I program. Dylan Penn led four Knights scorers in double digits with 16, but Notre Dame won 81-70.

Davenport on the Irish
"Notre Dame is a quality basketball program. They are very well coached, have a very well put together roster, and we're embracing the challenge of testing ourselves against them."
 
Knights Knotes

• Brian Waddell and Jack Karasinski matched each other with 23 points last time out on Saturday in a 94-86 loss to Wofford. The total marked a career high for Waddell, as were his six rebounds and nine made field goals. The game marked the first time Bellarmine has had two 20-point scorers this season. The last time Bellarmine had two players score at least 23 points each was in a 96-95 overtime win at Kennesaw State on February 1, 2024. Langdon Hatton scored 27 while Bash Wieland had 24, each reaching 23 in regulation.
• Bellarmine is 1-18 all-time against Power-5 opponents, with all games happening on the road. The Knights opened this season at Georgia and at Kansas State and will make a trip to Kentucky on December 23.
• This will be the first of four consecutive games away from Knights Hall for Bellarmine as they play just two home games among their first eight contests.

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