Irish Use Late Run to Put Away Xavier
Frank Vitovitch
March 20, 2000

South Bend, Ind - Notre Dame and Xavier fought an up and down battle for most of the game until the Irish pulled away late in the second half to secure a 76-64 win in the second round of the NIT.  Notre Dame took a 59-49 lead after officials hit Xavier coach Skip Prosser with a technical foul, but then scored only two points in the next seven minutes to left the Musketeers pull within 61-59 before going on a 15-5 run to win the game.

Xavier had the edge in athleticism, but the game turned out to be a shooting contest with Xavier attempting a whopping 36 three pointers with Maurice McAfee taking 15 alone while hitting six.  Notre Dame attempted 17 and converted on nine wit David Graves leading the way with five en route to his game high 24 points, 21 of which came in the first half.

The Musketeers harassed Troy Murphy all game long and gave him no easy baskets, but the All American still ended up with 21 points and 9 rebounds missing his 23rd double-double of the season by just one rebound.  As a team Notre Dame owned the glass, grabbing 41 boards to Xavier's 30 with Murphy and Graves each grabbing 9.

Notre Dame lead by three at half-time and found themselves trailing early in the second half before they heated up from behind the three point line to take a 10 point lead after Prosser's previously mentioned technical foul.  After that the Irish did not lose the lead for the rest of the game. 

Down the stretch Notre Dame came up huge from the foul line hitting 20 of 27 overall from the game with freshman Matt Carroll hitting six of six in the final minutes of the game.  Troy Murphy also added to his already staggering number of free throw attempts with 12 more as he hit 10 of them.

Notre Dame will advance to play the winner of the Southern Illinois/BYU game.  The game will be played on Wednesday at the Joyce Center, Notre Dame's third straight home game.  Playing at home should be a big plus for Troy Murphy who is nursing a sore ankle.  By playing at home he will be able to rest it all the way to game time and not have to worry about traveling at all. 

The win gave Notre Dame it's first 20 win season since the 1988-89 season when Digger Phelps was in charge.  Notre Dame will be playing for a spot in the NIT Final Four on Wednesday.  The game will be televised on ESPN and will be either a 7PM or 9PM EST tip off. 

Go Irish!