SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Notre Dame waited and waited and waited on the law of averages to kick in, and in the process, Marquette decimated the Irish with every shot made from every impossible angle.
Then the No. 16 Irish's wait came to an end. And they took off while their visitors came back to earth in a crash-landing.
Notre Dame notched an improbable 80-75 win over Marquette at Purcell Pavilion, totally unable to stop anything the Golden Eagles did in the first half and then zoning them into submission in the second half, with the visitors shooting better than 60 percent before intermission and then a meager 30 percent after it.
Photo gallery: Notre Dame beats Marquette
Meanwhile, the Irish never truly stopped clicking, hitting 53.5 percent for the game and draining 25 free throws as a team. Ben Hansbrough led the charge with a career-high 28 points for the Irish, who avenged a 22-point loss to the Golden Eagles just 12 days earlier. Tyrone Nash added 13 points, Eric Atkins 12 and Carleton Scott contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds to the Irish's cause.
Marquette -- which shot 53 percent overall and better than 70 percent from the field in a Jan. 10 victory -- fired at a 61.5 percent clip in the first half Saturday and hit five of seven 3-pointers before intermission. The Golden Eagles had an 11-point lead early in the second half after a Jae Crowder 3-pointer.
Then, basically, Marquette stopped making shots. Part of that was a Notre Dame switch to zone, a last-gasp effort with man-to-man defense getting shredded. Part of that was improved Irish tenacity and work on the boards, and a lot of the momentum swing had to do with the Irish's offensive renewal.
Two Hansbrough free throws capped a 13-2 run that got the Irish a 53-51 lead, and his baseline tomahawk jam finished a 22-6 stretch that put the Irish up 62-57 with 8:51 left. The Golden Eagles never truly mounted a charge after that, hitting just one field goal in a seven-minute span and watching Notre Dame pull away. Nash hit two free throws with 2:49 left and then tipped in a miss at the shot-clock buzzer with 1:52 left to push the Irish semi-comfortably ahead 73-65, in an exhilarating and unlikely comeback.
Source: http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2011/01/notre-dame-game-day-holding-serve-at-home.html
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