BBall Stayin' Alive
Frank Vitovitch
January 31, 2000

South Bend, Ind - Was that John Travolta or Matt Doherty on the sidelines Saturday?  Because the Irish basketball team is doing as the song from the Travolta movie Stayin' Alive says by Oh Oh Oh Oh Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive, Oh Oh Oh Oh Stayin; Aliiiiiiiive.  Ok so it looses its affect when the Bee Gees aren't singing it but you get the point.

Saturday the Irish faced a must win game if they have any intentions of going to the Tourney this year, and responded very well.  Mike Jarvis brought his #25 ranked St. John's Red Storm to take on the still unranked Fighting Irish in front of a wild crowd at the Joyce Center.  Prior to the game Jarvis said it would be a hard fought, close game that will be decided in the final minutes, and he was exactly right.

Notre Dame lead through most of the game, but the lead was always around six to seven points until the mid 2nd half when St. John's Bootsy Thornton (who gets the best name of the game award) hit three straight threes to tie the game.  After his 3rd three, Notre Dame pulled away.  After Thornton hit the 3rd three, the Red Storm added a two point basket to take a two point lead at 58-56.   Notre Dame when on to outscore St. John's 17-2 to end the game.

The run started with Jimmy Dillon.  Dillon felt a lot of responsibility for the Irish's lose to Miami early this week since according to him he should be providing the senior leadership and wasn't.  While the Miami lose wasn't Dillon's fault, if it was he made up for it against St. John's.  After getting the lead back for Notre Dame with a three pointer, he stole a Red Storm pass and ran to floor which he ending by bringing down the house with a monster dunk, much to the surprise of his teammates and the crowd.

The big scorer for Notre Dame was, as usual, Troy Murphy.   Murphy ended up with 30 points and a career high 18 rebounds.  Murphy was sensational in the Irish's 13th win of the season.  Early in the second half he took command of the game and owned the paint.  He showed how good Notre Dame can be with a dominant player in the paint.  Murphy is a big guy, but he wont be able to get 18 boards against some of the premier centers in the country which is why Notre Dame needs to get a center in recruiting this season who can step right in and start as a freshman as Murphy did last year.

The win pushed Notre Dame to 13-8 on the season and 3-3 in conference play.  Notre Dame now has three must win games in a row before the rematch with UConn.  The Irish play West Virginia, Pittsburgh, and Villanova.   These are three games Notre Dame has to win in order to get to the tourney.   Next game for Notre Dame is West Virginia on Wednesday at 7:30.  The game will be televised by WNDU in South Bend.

Go Irish!