No. 3 seed Notre Dame used a mixture of three point shots and beautiful passing in their victory over the No. 7 seed Wichita State Shockers, 81-70 Thursday night in Cleveland, Ohio.
Led by Demetrius Jackson, who scored a team-high 20 points, the Irish jumped out to take a quick 13 point lead early in the first half. From there, Notre Dame never seemed to look back.
The Irish shot an unbelievable 75 percent from the field in the second half. Wichita State took their first and only lead of the game with just under 16 minutes to play, but after a Notre Dame timeout the Irish went on a 19-8 run led by a barrage of three point baskets.
On the game Notre Dame shot better than 50 percent and hit 9-19 three pointers, six of them coming in the second half and forward Zach Auguste was 6/6 from the floor with 15 points. Pat Connaughton added 16 points and 10 rebounds and Jerian Grant had 9 points and 11 assists for the Irish.
Wichita State started out flat, and even though they clawed back to take a brief lead, they never seemed to be able to find that defensive presence that led them all season. Playing an intense and physical match-up last round against Kansas, the Shockers looked to still be hung over after that emotional victory.
Fred VanVleet tried his best all game to shock this Wichita State offense into gear with his game-high 25 points, but it wasn't enough to out-duel the luck of the Irish.
Notre Dame now awaits to see who their opponent will be on Saturday night in the Elite Eight. They will either play the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats or the West Virginia Mountaineers. If Kentucky escapes tonight with their perfect record still in tact it will be an interesting match-up between the sharpshooting of Notre Dame and the size of the Wildcats.