Dane Goodwin scored 17 points as Notre Dame withstood a stiff challenge from Howard and held on for a 71-68 victory Monday afternoon in the MLK Classic in Washington, D.C.

Nate Laszewski collected 17 points and 13 rebounds in Notre Dame's first visit to a historically Black university. Blake Wesley added 13 for Notre Dame (11-6), which shot 52.1 percent from the floor and won for the seventh time in eight games.

The Fighting Irish fended off a tough challenge from the Bison (6-8) and withstood a pair of late comeback attempts.

The game was developed through a conversation by Fighting Irish coach Mike Brey and Bison coach Kenny Blakeney and originally scheduled to occur last season before Howard's campaign ended in December 2020 due to COVID-19. Brey was an assistant coach for Duke when Blakeney played there. Blakeney later was an assistant under Brey at Delaware.

Howard alumnus Gus Johnson was originally slated to do play-by-play for Fox but missed the game due to health and safety protocol.

Steve Settle III led all scorers, scoring 16 of his career-high 25 points in the second half as the Bison shot 41.4 percent from the floor. Leading scorer Kyle Foster and Elijah Hawkins added 12 as Howard trimmed the deficit to one point twice within in the final minute.

Notre Dame trailed 42-40 when Hawkins hit a nifty reverse layup with 14:05 remaining and began pulling away. The Fighting Irish got the lead for good when Goodwin hit a 3-pointer with 13:56 remaining and took their first double-digit lead at 56-46 on Goodwin's dunk with 8:08 remaining.

Howard was within 58-54 on a 3-pointer by Settle with about six minutes left but Notre Dame took a 67-56 lead with 2:50 remaining on consecutive hoops by Wesley. The Bison ripped off 10 straight points to get within 67-66 with 56 seconds left, and they were within 69-68 when Hawkins hit a reverse layup with 34 seconds to go.

After Hubbs hit a layup for a 71-68 lead with 12 seconds remaining, Hawkins missed a 3-point try at the buzzer.

--Field Level Media