Irish Handle Ice Cold Panthers
UHND.com - Andrew Amato
Coming off of an upset of Seton Hall, the Panthers could
not use that momentum to their advantage. Notre Dame defeated the cold shooting Panthers
in Big East play Tuesday night 74-58.
The Irish (10-5, 2-2) opened the game by running off 11 straight points and
forcing 4 Panthers (10-6, 2-3) turnovers. The Panthers opened the game 0-11
from the field.
Troy Murphy led the Irish with 23 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 blocked shots.
Martin Ingelsby had 13 points and 5 assists. David Graves chipped in 12
points, and Harold Swanagan added 10 rebounds.
Jaron Brown led the Panthers with 12 points. Ricardo Greer had 11 points on
2-12 shooting.
The Panthers shot a season low 31.3 percent from the field. The Panthers
trailed by 10 (48-38) midway through the 2nd half, but never got any closer.
The Panthers scored 10 points in the final 69 seconds of the game to prevent
themselves from their lowest scoring output of the season.
The Irish did not have the old Kentucky Blues as they played a solid game
against the Panthers who were coming off of a 77-65 victory over then #15
ranked Seton Hall Pirates. That was by far the biggest win in Ben Howland's
1 1/2 seasons as head coach at Pittsburgh.
The Kentucky Wildcats, the last team Notre Dame suffered a defeat to,
defeated the #4 ranked Tennessee Volunteers at Rupp Arena Tuesday evening by
the score of 84-74. The Wildcats never trailed during the entire contest.
The Irish next host the West Virginia Mountaineers (9-4, 0-2) at the Joyce
Center on Sunday at NOON (EST). In 2 weeks (Saturday February 3), the
Irish will travel to Fitzgerald Field House to battle these Pittsburgh
Panthers.
This is the beginning of an important Big East 3 game homestand versus
Pittsburgh, West Virginia, and Syracuse.
The Irish can regain their national ranking by running off 3 straight wins
before visiting a HOT Georgetown Hoyas basketball team.