Irish Freeze Mountaineers
UHND.com - Andrew Amato
Notre Dame overcame an early 17-4 deficit to defeat the West Virginia Mountaineers (10-5, 2-3) 78-61 in Big East Conference play on Sunday.
David Graves led the Irish (11-5, 3-2) with 17 points. Troy Murphy added 16 but struggled in the 2nd half.
West Virginia jumped out to a 17-4 lead, but the Mountaineers went ice cold from the field. Notre Dame got its first lead of the game when Troy Murphy connected on two free throws to make the score 24-23. David Graves hit a three pointer with 3:31 remaining in the first half to give the Irish a 34-24 lead. The Irish held a 37-30 advantage at halftime.
To begin the 2nd half, the Mountaineers once again jumped out of the gates quickly. They started the half on a 7-2 run to close the gap to 2 points, 39-37. Notre Dame returned the favor with a 14-2 run capped off by a David Graves three pointer with 12:07 remaining in the game. The Mountaineers fought, but never got close again.
Three Mountaineers fouled out, including forward Chris Moss who received two technical fouls. His second came in the second half with Ryan Humphrey at the foul line. Moss purposely locked up Troy Murphy and shoved him. There was no other action going on in the lane. In return, Moss was given his second technical foul and thrown out of the game. That's not the end of the story. Moss refused to leave the floor. He had to be restrained by teammates, coaches, and an official. Mountaineers Head Coach Gale Catlett nearly ripped off his jersey when he stormed onto the court to drag Moss off. Catlett couldn't do it and needed help from his assistant coaches who had to escort Moss to the locker room. On his way to the locker room, Moss had a great idea, to spit towards the Notre Dame student section. Whether or not he was aiming, Moss directly hit a Notre Dame cheerleader. The Big East Conference will certainly take action against Moss, which will probably result in a multiple game suspension.
Martin Ingelsby had 14 points for the Irish and Ryan Humphrey contributed 12 points and 4 blocked shots. Calvin Bowman led the Mountaineers with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Lionel Armstead and Brooks Berry chipped in 15 and 12 points respectively for West Virginia.
Syracuse visits the Joyce Center on Tuesday at 7:30 on ESPN PLUS.
In front of 11,058, both teams made less than 40% of their shots from the field. Notre Dame made a higher percentage of their shots than the Mountaineers did.
Also of note for the Irish, Matt Carroll added 7 points (3-11 from the field), 9 rebounds, and 8 assists.