No. 14 seed Stephen F. Austin had already broken brackets this weekend with their victory of third-seeded West Virginia Friday. The Lumberjacks were primed to become this year’s Cinderella team, but the glass slipper was no match for the luck of the Irish as they fell 76-75 to Notre Dame — thanks to a late tip-in by freshman Rex Pflueger. The loss snaps the longest win streak in the country as Stephen F. Austin had won 21 straight games.
Luck was truly on the Irish’s side as consecutive shots by Demetrius Jackson and Zach Auguste missed before Pflueger tipped in Auguste’s attempt at the buzzer. The basket was Pflueger’s only shot in the game and the first time he’d scored since March 5th. On his game winning putback, Pflueger stated, “I just crashed the board, I thought Zach was going to make that last layup, but coach always emphasizes going to the board hard, especially in situations like that, and it just turned out for the best for us.”
Here’s some fancy Pflueger action, pre-Irish:
