WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

Notre Dame Knocks Off State, 43-42

By Tim Peeler, GoPack.com

Feb 12, 2008

Raleigh, N.C. —  It was a shot Terry Gannon was born to take.

The native of Joliet, Ill., and boyhood fan of Notre Dame basketball dearly wanted to pay back Fighting Irish head coach Digger Phelps for offering Dan Duff a scholarship instead of Gannon.

And, Saturday afternoon at Reynolds Coliseum, with five seconds remaining on the clock, N.C. State’s sophomore reserve guard had the perfect opportunity, with an open 19-foot jumpshot that would have won the game.

“It was a dream situation – a jumpshot to beat Notre Dame on national television,” Gannon said. “I honestly thought I had made it. It was a well-designed play that went just the way we planned it.”

Unfortunately for Gannon and the Wolfpack, the basketball gods didn’t want the payback as much as he did – the ball bounced off the front of the rim, giving Notre Dame a hard-earned 43-42 victory that ended State’s four-game winning streak.