Before walking off the court for the final time, Fred VanVleet rubbed senior Tekele Cotton’s head and sent him out of the game to a round of applause from the Shocker faithful in attendance. He and fellow senior Darius Carter received a hugs from teammates.

Wichita State fought back twice, but neither effort was good enough to upend the Notre Dame Fighting Irish who won 81-70 Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.

“These guys never quit,” head coach Gregg Marshall said. “They fought to the bitter end, and it was a great year for us, so really proud of them.”

The first comeback by the Shockers came in the first half. In just five and a half minutes, Notre Dame accumulated an 18-5 lead. A team hasn’t jumped out to a lead like this on WSU all year. 

Wichita State didn’t give up though. Pulling within eight in less than four minutes, Ron Baker went to work. Baker hit a pair of free throws then sank back-to-back three-pointers within two minutes to cut it to three.

By the end of the first half, the Shockers were only down three. 

“We felt good, obviously battling back,” VanVleet said. “So battling all the way back, we wanted to open up the second half in a good way and we did that.”

It didn’t take long before the Shockers led by one point. VanVleet and Carter went to work early scoring four points each to start the second half and lead 38-37. Then Notre Dame flipped a switch.

Just how they opened the game, the Irish 70-56 ten minutes later. A barrage of three-pointers and back door cuts for open layups helped Notre Dame shoot an astonishing 75 percent from the field and 75 percent from three in the second half. 

“They just shot the ball, shot the cover off of it in reality,” Baker said. “I’ve never seen a team shoot it like they have today.”

Down by 19 points with less than five minutes to play, Wichita State kept working, grinding, fighting.

“I appreciate the warrior spirit,” Marshall said.

Wichita State was able to cut it to 10, but it was too late. 

“Deep down, I’m pretty upset,” Baker said. “I feel for our seniors Tekele and Darius, two guys who obviously deserve to move on and play Saturday.”

VanVleet will miss the seniors as well, but recognizes the great year its been, he said.

“It’s been a heck of a ride,” VanVleet said. “It’s been a great year for us, lot of ups and downs, lot of fighting, got a bunch of new guys just bringing them along but it’s been fun, it’s been a great ride for us.”