UCLA came into South Bend winners of 88 straight games, 7 straight national championships, and had last lost to Notre Dame in 1971. The top ranked Bruins were met by the second ranked Irish. Notre Dame was coming off of Ara Parseghian's second national championship and looking to be ranked #1 in both sports. Digger Phelps was in his third season as head coach and went 6-20 in his first season. The next year the team started 1-6 but with a strong second half of the season, the team would place second in the NIT. Now the team was 9-0 and six freshman, including Adrian Dantley, were making an immediate impact.

Early on Notre Dame kept pace with UCLA as the game was tied four times up until the score was 8-8. Then UCLA took over and had built a seventeen point lead over the next nine minutes to lead 35-18. Notre Dame went on a streak of their own to close the gap to 39-34 with 48 seconds remaining in the half. Within 13 seconds, UCLA made four free throws and led by nine at halftime, 43-34. The first five minutes of the second half was all Notre Dame as John Shumate's layup made the score 45-43. But UCLA went on another streak and with 10 minutes left led 54-43. By 3:30 remaining in the game, UCLA led 70-59. Then it happened.

John Shumate made a quick basket, stole an in-bounds pass and scored a second. Freshman Adrian Dantley stole a UCLA pass and broke free for a layup. Gary Brokaw made two jump shots following UCLA miscues and with 1:10 left, Notre Dame trailed 70-69. UCLA made a layup with 45 seconds left but the basket was waved off due to an offensive foul. Following the in-bounds pass, Dwight Clay received the ball in the corner and fired a quick shot which gave Notre Dame its first lead in the entire game, 71-70. UCLA took a timeout with 21 seconds left and proceeded to fire up many shots and putbacks, none which would fall. Shumate grabbed the final rebound the Notre Dame ended the longest collegiate winning streak. Notre Dame won by scoring the final twelve points in the final three minutes of the game.

The victory would be the biggest of Digger's career and the first #1 team his squads would beat. Phelps would go on to defeat a NCAA record tying seven top ranked teams.

The video below starts with UCLA making the basket to put the score at 70-59. What follows is the final minutes of the game.

            1  2     
UCLA       43 27 - 70
Notre Dame 34 37 - 71