ROSEMONT, Ill (UHND.com) – Despite nearly blowing a 28 point second half lead, Notre Dame held on to a 98-91 victory over DePaul to clinch a first round bye in the Big East Tournament. Luke Harandgody and Rob Kurz both scored over 20 points to lead the Irish to their 22nd win of the season.
Harangody came up a rebound short of collecting his 18th double-double of the season, but the super sophomore had a team high 24 points on 11 of 18 shooting from the floor. Kurz meanwhile dropped in 21 points and 7 boards while hitting 4 of 5 three point attempts.
Notre Dame built a 28 point lead in the second half thanks to a 13-2 run for start the half after taking a 47-31 lead into halftime. From there, DePaul freshman Dar Tucker caught fire and brought the Blue Demons all the way back to within seven points with just over two minutes remaining.
As they did against Pitt a week and a half ago though, Kyle McAlarney and Tory Jackson squashed the DePaul comeback bid with four points on the next two possessions to push the lead to 11.
Notre Dame came into the game looking to build some momentum heading into post season play after Thursday’s 90-85 loss to Louisville which made a Big East regular season championship highly unlikely. With two more games this week against St. John’s and South Florida, two teams at the bottom of the conference, the Irish should be able to head into the Big East Tourney on a winning note.
Today’s win not only gives the Irish a coveted first round bye in the Big East Tournament, but it also gives them 12 conference wins for the first time ever since they joined the conference.
Despite the win, concerns will still be lingering over the Notre Dame defense after nearly surrendering the 28 point lead. Last Sunday the Irish defense could not keep an undermanned Syracuse team off the scoreboard in the second half in a game Notre Dame probably should have won running away – just as they should have done today.
The Irish were able to overcome their porous second half defense by shooting 56% from the field including 13 of 23 from beyond the arc. McAlarney hit on 3 of 8 attempts from 3 point range hitting just 1 of 8 Thursday in the loss to Louisville.
Sixth man Ryan Ayers continued his torrid shooting from downtown with a three for three performance off the bench after hitting on five of six attempts Thursday night. He came up one point short of recording a third straight double digit scoring output with nine points.
With one game to go before post season play, the Irish sit at 12-4 in league play, tied with UConn for 3rd and a game and a half ahead of rival Marquette. Next up the Irish will host St. John’s on Wednesday night before ending the regular season with a trip to South Florida. Notre Dame will be looking to extend its home winning streak to 37 when the Red Storm comes to town this week.
